OF   THE 

Theological    Seminary, 

PRINCETON,    N.  J. 

Case,  y*^*-^-^'—  ^  ^  Division 

87te//^y,  W.r...;^l.Secticn :.,^. 

Book, ^'...Jl) j'o.... 


A      DO  N,A  T  I  O  N 


V £^jf/Ji^^^ 

\  Beceiued      /  Q'tZ  n 


.V    ^ 


I 


A  COMPLETE  HISTORY  / 

OF    THE 

LIVES,  ACTS,  AND  MARTYRDOMS 

OF   THE 

HOLY  APOSTLES, 

AND 

THE  TWO  EVANGELISTS,  ST.  MARK  AND  LUKE. 

TO  WHICH   IS  ADDED, 

AN  INTRODUCTORY  DISCOURSE  CONCERNING  THE  THREE  GREAT 

DISPENSATIONS   OF   THE   CHURCH,    PATRIARCHAL, 

MOSAICAL,  AND  EVANGELICAL. 

BEING 

A  CONTINUATION  OF  CHRISTIAN  ANTIQUITIES. 

AND 

A    BRIEF    ENUMERATION     AND    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    APOSTLES    AND    THEIR 

SUCCESSORS,    FOR    THE     FIRST     THREE     HUXllRED     YEARS,    IN 

THE    FIVE    GREAT     APOSTOLICAL    CHURCHES. 

ALSO, 

A  COMPLETE  HISTORY 

OF    THE 

LIVES,  ACTS,  DEATHS,  AND  MARTYRDOMS 

OF    THOSE 
WHO  WERE  CONTEMPORARY  WITH,  OR   IMMEDIATELY  SUCCEEDED 

THE   APOSTLES. 

LIKEWISE, 

OF  THE  MOST  EMINENT  OF 
THE  PRIMITIVE  FATHERS, 

FOR  THE  FIRST   THREE   HUNDRED   YEARi^. 

TO  WHICH   IS    ADDED, 

A  CHRONOLOGY 

OF    THE 

THREE  FIRST  AGES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


BY  WILLIAM  *CAVE,  D.  D. 

VOL.  II. 
PHILADELPHIA  : 

PlBLISHED  BY  SOLOMON  WIATT,  NO.  104,  NORTH  SECOND  5TREE  l, 
1810. 


:v>>.H 


APOSTOLICI; 

OR, 

THE  HISTORY 

OF    THE 

LIVES,  ACTS,  DEATH,  AND  MARTYRDOMS 

OF    THOSE 

WHO  WERE  CONTEMPORARY  WITH,  OR  IMMEDIATELY 
SUCCEEDED    THE    APOSTLES; 

AS  ALSO 

THE  MOST  EMINENT  OF 

THE  PRIMITIVE  FATHERS, 

FOR  THE  FIRST  THREE  HUNDRED  YEARS. 

TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED, 

A  CHRONOLOGY 

OF    THE 

THREE  FIRST  AGES  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


BY  WILLIAM  CAVE,  D.  D. 

PHILADELPHIA : 

PUBLISHED  BY  SOLOMON  WIATT,  NO.  104,  NORTH  SECOND-STREET. 
Sweeny  &  M'Kenziej  Printeis. 

1810. 


1 


TO  THE  READER. 


IT  is  not  the  least  argument  for  the  spiritual  and 
incorporeal  nature  of   human  souls,   and  that  they  are 
acted  by  a  higher  principle  than  meer  matter  and  motion^ 
their  boundless  and  inquisitive  researches  after   know- 
ledge.    Our  minds  naturally  grasp  at  a  kind  of  omnis- 
ciency,  and  not  content  with  the  speculations  of  this  or 
that  particular  science,  hunt  over  the  whole  course   of 
nature  ;  nor  are  they  satisfied  with  the  present  state  of 
things,   but  pursue  the  notices  of  former  ages    and  are 
desirous  to  comprehend  whatever  transactions  have  been 
since  time  itself  had  a  being.   We  endeavour  to  make  up 
the  shortness  of  our  lives  by  the  extent  of  our  know- 
ledge ;    and  because  we  cannot  see  forwards    and  spy 
what  lies  concealed  in  the  womb  of  futurity,    we  look 
back,  and  eagerly  trace  the  footsteps  of  those  times  that 
went  before  us      Indeed  to  be  ignorant  of   what  hap- 
pened before  we  ourselves  came    into  the  world  is,  (as 
Cicero  *  truly  observes)  to  be  always  children,  and  to  de- 
piive   ourselves  of  what  would  at   once  entertain    our 
mil  ids  with  the  highest  pleasure,   and  add  the  greatest 
authority  and  advantage  to   us.     The  knowledge  of  an- 
tiquity, besides  that  it  gratifies  one  of  our  noblest  curiosi- 
ties,  improves  our  minds  by  the  wisdom  of  preceding 
ages,  acquaints  us  with  the  most  remarkable  occurrences 
of  the   Divine   Providence,    and  presents  us    with  the 
most  apt  and  proper  rules  and  instances  that  may  form 
us  to  a  life  of  true  philosophy  and  virtue  ;    History  (says 
Thucydides'')   being  nothing  else  but  ^^Koo-o^/a  u,  -nrtfpaj'oj^*'- 
tav,  philosophy  drawn  from  examples  ;  the  one  is  a  more 

a  In  Oratore,  page  268. 

b  Ap.  Dion  Halic.  Usgi  hiymvi^i],  p.  65.  Tom.  2. 


^  TO  THE  READER. 

gross  and  popular  philosophy,  the  other  a  more  subtle 
and  refintd  history 

rhese  considerations,  together  with  a  desire  to  per- 
petuate the   memory  of  brave  and  great  actions,  gave 
birth  to  history,  and   obliged  mankind  to  transmit  the 
more  observable  passages  both  of  their  own  and  forego- 
ing times  to  the  notice  of  posterity       The  first  in  this 
kind  was  Moses,  the  great  prince  and  legislator  of  the 
Jewish  nation,  ^ho  from  the  creation  of  the  world  con- 
veyed down  the  records  of  above  2550  years ;  the  same 
course   being  more  or  less  continued  through   all   the 
periods  of  the  Jewish  state.     Among  the  Babylonians 
they  had  their  public  archives,  which  were  transcribed 
by  Berosus  the  priest  of  Belus,  who  composed  the  Chal- 
de m  history.     The  Egyptians  were  wont  to  record  their 
memorable   acts  upon  pillars  in  hieroglyphic  notes  and 
sacred   char-acters,    first    begun    'as  they   pretend,)    by 
Thouth,  or  the  first  of  their  Mercuries ;   out  of  which 
Manethos,  their  chief  priest,  collected  his  three  books  of 
Egyptian   dynasties,    which    he    dedicated  to    Ptolomy 
Philddelphus,  second  of  that  line.     The  Phoenician  his- 
tory was  first  attempted  by  Sanchoniathon,  digested  part- 
ly out  of  the  annals  of  cities,  partly  out  of  the  books 
kept  in  the  tem.ple,  and  communicated  to  him  by  Je- 
rombaal,  priest  of  the  god  Jao  ;  this  he  dedicated  to  Abi- 
balus  king  of  Berytus,  which  Philo  Byblius,  about  the 
time  if  the  emperor  Adrian,  translated  into  Greek.  The 
Gr'-eks  boast  of  the  antiquity  of  Cadmus,  Archilochus, 
and  many  others,  though  the  most  ancient  of  their  his- 
torians now   e.tmt   are  Herodotus,    Thucydides,    and 
Xenophon.       Among  the    Romans  the   foundations  of 
history  were  laid  in  annals,  the  public  acts  of  every  year 
being  made  up  by  the   Pontifex   Maximus,   who  kept 
them  at  his  own  house,  that  the  people  upon  any  emer- 
gency mio;ht  resort  to  them  for  satisfaction.  These  were 
the  annales  maximi    and  aiforded  excellent  materials  to 
those  who  afterwards  wrote  the  history  of  that  great  and 
powcful  commonwealth. 

13  ut  that  whicli  of  all  others  challenges  the  greatest  re- 
^ard  both  as  it  more  immediately  concerns  the  present 


TO  THE  READER.  * 

inquiry,    and  as  it  contains  accounts  of  things  relating 
to  our  biarsrest  interests,  is  the  historv  of  the  church.   For 
herein,  as  in  a  glass,  we  have  the  true  face  of  the  church 
in  its  several  ages  represented  to  us.     Here  we  find  with 
what  infinite  care  those  divine   records,  which  are  the 
great  instruments  of  our  eternal  happiness,  have  through 
the  several  periods  of  time  been  conveyed  down  to  us  ; 
with  what  a  mighty  success  religion  has  triumphed  over 
the  greatest  oppositions,  and  spread  its  banners  in  the  re- 
motest corners  of  the  world.     With  how  incomparable 
a  zeal  good  men  have  contended  earnestly  for  that  faith 
wliich  was  once  delivered  to  the  saints  ;  with  what  a  bitter 
and  implacable  fury  the  enemies  of  religion  have  set  up- 
on it,   and  how  signally  the  Divine  Providence  has  ap- 
peared in   its   preservation,   and   returned  the  mischief 
upon  their  own  heads.     Here  we  see  the  constant  suc- 
cession of  bishops  and  the  ministers  of  religion  in  their 
several  stations,  the  glorious  company  of  the  apostles,  the 
■goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets,  the  noble  army  of  mar- 
tyrs,  who  with  the  most  cheerful  and  composed  minds 
have  gone  to  heaven  through  the  acutest  torments.     In 
short,  we  have  here  the  most  admirable  examples  of  a 
divine  and  religious  life,  of  a  real  and  unfeigned  piety,  a 
sincere  and   universal  charity,  a  strict  temperance  and 
sobriety,    an   unconquerable    patience   and    submission 
clearly  represented  to  us.     And  the  higher  we  go,  the 
more   illustrious  are  the  instances  of  piety  and  virtue. 
For  however  later  ages  may  have  improved  in  know- 
ledge,  experience  daily  making  new   additions  to  arts 
and  sciences,  yet  former  times  were  most  eminent  for 
the  practice  and  virtues  of  a  holy  life.     The  divine  laws 
while  newly  published,  had  a  stronger  influence   upon 
the  minds  of  men,   and  the  spirit  of  religion  was  more 
active  and  vigorous  till  men  by  degrees  began  to  be  de- 
bauched into   that   impiety  and  prophaneness,    that  in 
these  last  times  has  over-run  the  world. 

It  were  altogether  needless  and  improper  for  me  to 
consider  what  records  there  are  of  the  state  of  the  church 
before  our  Saviour's  incarnation  :  it  is  sufficient  to  my 
purpose  to  inquire  by  what  hands  the  first  aflliirs  of  the 


^  TO  THE   READER. 

Christian  church  have  been  transmitted  to  us.     As  for 
the   life  and  death,  the  actions  and  miracles  of  our  Sa- 
viour, and  some  of  the  first  acts  of  his  apostles  they  are 
fully  represented  by  the  evangtlical  historians.     Indeed 
immediately  after  them  we  meet  with  nothing  of  this  na- 
ture,   the  apostles  and   their   immediate   successors,  as 
Eusebius  observes")  not  being  at  leisure  to  write  many 
books,   as   being   employed    in   ministries    greater   and 
more   immediately  serviceable  to  the  world.     The  first 
that  engaged  in  this  way,  was  Hegesippus,  an  ancient  and 
apostolic  man  (as  he  in  Phocius  styles  him)  an  Hebrew 
by  descent,  and  born  (as  is  probable)  in  Palestine.*^     He 
flourished  principally  in   the  reign  of  M.  Aurelius,  and 
came  to   Rome  in  the  time  of  Aiiicetus,   where  he  resi- 
ded till  the  time  of  Eleutherius.    He  wrote  five  books  of 
ecclesiastical   history,   which  he  styled  Commentaries  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Church,   wherein  in  a  plain  and  familiar 
style  he   described  the  apostles'  travels  and  preachings, 
the  remarkable    passages    of   the  cTiurch,    the    several 
schisms,  heresies,  and  persecutions  that  infested  it  from 
our  Lord's  death  rill  his  own  time„     But  these,  alas,  are 
long  since  lost.   Tne  next  that  succeeded  in  this  province, 
though  the   first   that  reduced  it  to  any  exactness  and 
perfection,    was  Eusebius.     He  was   born  in  Palestine, 
about  the  later  times  of  the  emperor  Gallienus,  ordained 
presbyter  by  Agapius   bishop  of  Cgesarea,  who   suffer- 
ing about  the  end  of  the  Dioclesian  persecution,  Euse- 
bius succeeded   in  his   see.      A   man   of  incomparable 
parts  and  learning,  and  of  no  less  industry  and  diligence 
in   searching   out    the  records   and    antiquities    of    the 
church.      After  several  other  volumes  in  defence  of  the 
Christian  cause   against   the  assaults  both  of  Jews  and 
Gentiles,    he  set  himself  to  write  an  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory,  wherein  he  designed  (is  himself  tells  us  "■ )  to  re- 
count from  the  birth  of  our  Lord  till  his  time  the  most 
memorable  transactions  of  the  church,   the  apostolical 
successions,  the  first  preachers  and  planters  of  the  gos- 
pel, the  bibhops  that  presided  in  the  most  eminent  sees, 

ccl,  1.  o.  e.  34.  D.  94.       d  Cod.  232.  col.  893.      e  Lib.  1.  c.  1.  p.  3- 


TO   THE   READER.  f 

the  most  noted  errors  and  heresies,  the  calamities  that 
befel  the  Jewish  state,  the  attempts  and  persecutions 
made  against  the  Christians  bv  the  powers  of  the  world, 
the  torments  and  sufterings  of  the  martyrs,  and  the  bles- 
sed and  happy  period  that  was  put  to  them  by  the  con- 
version of  Constantine  ihe  Great.  All  this,  accordingly, 
he  digested  in  ten  books,  which  he  composed  in  the 
dechning  part  of  his  life,  and  (as  Vaiesius  conjectures,*") 
some  years  after  the  council  of  Nice,  though  when  not 
long  before  he  expresly  affirms  that  history  to  have 
been  written  before  the  Nicene  Synod.  How  he  can  here- 
in be  excused  from  a  palpable  contradiction  I  cannot 
imagine.  It  is  true  Eusebius  takes  no  notice  of  that 
council,  but  that  might  be  partly  because  he  designed  to 
end  in  that  joyful  and  prosperous  scene  of  things  which 
Constantine  restored  to  the  church  (as  he  himself  plain- 
ly intimates  in  the  beginning  of  his  history)  which  he 
was  not  willing  to  discompose  with  the  controversies 
and  contentions  of  that  Synod,  according  to  the  humour 
of  all  historians.,  who  delight  to  shut  up  their  histories 
with  some  happy  and  successful  period ;  and  partly  be- 
cause he  intended  to  give  some  account  of  the  affairs 
of  that  council  in  his  book  of  the  life  of  Constantine  the 
Great. 

The  materials  wherewith  he  was  furnished  for  this 
great  undertaking  (which  he  complains  were  very  sm.all 
and  inconsiderable)  were  besides  Hegesippus  his  com- 
mentariesthen  extant,  Africanus  his  chronology,  the  books 
and  writings  of  several  fathers,  the  records  of  particu- 
lar cities,  ecclesiastical  epistles  written  by  the  bishops 
oi  those  times,  and  kept  in  the  archives  of  their  several 
churches,  especially  that  famous  library  at  Jerusalem, 
erected  by  Alexander,  bishop  of  that  place,  but  chiefly 
the  acts  of  the  martyrs,  which  in  those  times  were 
taken  at  large  with  great  care  and  accuracy.  These, 
at  least  a  great  many  of  them,  Eusebius  collected 
into  one  volume  under  the  title  of  'A5;t«iv  i,u^vij.oiM  2t;v=<>a)^». 
A  collection  of  the  ancient  martyrdoms  ;  which  he  refers 

f    Praefat.  de  Vit.  &  Script.  Euseb. 


«  TO  THE  READER. 

to  at  every  turn ;  besides  a  particular  narrative  which  ht 
wrote  (still  extant  as  an  appendage  to  the  eighth  book  of 
his  ecclesiastical  history)  concerning  the  martyrs  that  suf- 
fered in  Palestine.  A  great  part  of  these  acts  b}  the 
nei-ligence  and  unfaithfulness  of  succeeding  times,  were 
interpolated  and  corrupted,  especially  in  the  darker  and 
more  undisceming  ages,  when  superstition  had  over- 
spread the  church,  and  when  ignorance  and  interest  con- 
spired to  fill  the  world  with  idie  and  improbable  stories, 
and  men  took  what  liberty  they  pleased  in  venting  the 
issue  of  their  own  brains,  insomuch  that  some  of  the 
more  wise  and  moderate,  even  of  the  Roman  commu- 
nion have  complained  not  without  a  just  resentment  and 
indignation,  that  Laertius  has  written  the  lives  of  philo- 
sophers with  more  truth  and  chasteness,  thiin  many  h&ve 
done  the  lives  of  the  saints.  Upon  this  account  a  great 
and  general  outcry  has  been  made  against  Simeon  Me- 
taphrastes,  as  the  father  of  incredible  legends,  and  one  that 
has  notoriously  imposed  upon  the  world  by  the  most 
fabulous  reports.  Nay,  some  to  reflect  the  more  disgrace 
upon  him,  have  represented  him  as  a  petty  schoolmaster. 
A  charge,  in  my  mind,  rash  and  inconsiderate,  and  in  a 
great  measure  groundless  and  uncharitable.  He  was  a 
person  of  very  considerable  birth  and  fortune,  advanced 
to  the  highest  honours  and  oflices,  one  of  the  primier 
ministers  of  state,  and  as  is  probable,  great  chancellor  to 
the  emperor  of  Constantinople ;  learned  and  eloquent 
above  the  common  standard,  and  who,  by  the  persuasions 
not  only  of  some  great  ones  of  th-'t  time  (he  flourished 
under  Leo  the  wise  about  the  year  900,  but  principally 
wrote  under  the  reign  of  his  successor)  but  of  the  empe- 
ror himself,  was  prevailed  with  lo  reeUice  the  lives  of  the 
saints  into  order.  To  which  end  by  his  ov^n  infinite 
labour,  and  the  no  less  expenses  of  the  emperor,  he  ran- 
sacked the  libraries  of  the  empire,  till  he  had  amassed  a 
vast  heap  of  volumes.  The  more  ancient  acts  he  passed 
without  any  considerable  alteration,  more  than  the  cor- 
recting  them  by  a  collation  of  several  copits,  and  the  en- 
larging some  circmnstances  to  render  them  more  plain 
and  easy,  as  appears  by  comparing  some  that  are  extant 


TO  THE  READER.  9 

at  tills  dav.  Where  lives  were  confused  and  immetho- 
dical,  or  written  in  a  style  rude  and  barbarous,  he  digest- 
ed the  history  into  order,  end  clothed  it  in  more  polite 
and  elegant  language.  Others  that  were  defective  in 
neither,  he  left  as  they  were,  and  gave  tliem  place 
amongst  his  own.  So  that  I  see  no  reason  for  so  severe  a 
censure,  unless  it  were  evident,  that  he  took  his  account 
of  things  not  from  the  writings  of  those  that  had  gone  be- 
fore him,  but  forged  them  of  his  own  head.  Not  to  say 
that  things  have  been  made  much  worse  by  translations, 
seldom  appearing  in  any  but  the  dress  of  the  Latin  church, 
and  that  many  lives  are  laid  at  his  door  of  which  he  ne- 
ver was  the  father,  it  being  usual  with  some,  when  they 
met  with  the  life  of  a  saint,  the  author  whereof  they  knew 
not,  presently  to  fasten  it  upon  Metaphrastcs.  But  to 
return  to  Eusebius,  from  whom  we  have  digressed. 

His  ecclesiastical  history,  the  almost  only  remaining 
records  of  the  ancient  church,  deserves  a  just  esteem 
and  veneration,  without  which  those  very  fragments  of 
antiquity  had  been  lost,  which  by  this  means  have  es- 
caped the  common  shipwreck.  And  indeed  S.  Hierom, 
Nicephorus,  and  the  rest  do  not  only  build  upon  his 
foundation,  but  almost  entirely  derive  their  materials 
from  him.  As  for  Socrates,  Sozomen,  Theodorit,  and 
the  later  historians,  they  relate  to  times  without  the 
limits  of  my  present  business,  generally  conveying  down 
little  more  than  the  history  of  their  own  times,  the  church 
history  of  those  more  early  ages  being  either  quite  ne- 
glected, or  very  negligentl}'  managed.  The  first  that  to 
any  purpose  broke  the  ice  after  the  reformation,  were  the 
centuriators  of  Magdeburg,  a  combination  of  learned  and 
industrious  men,  the  chief  of  whom  were  John  Wigan- 
dus,  Matth.  Judex,  Basilius  Faber,  Andreas  Corvinus, 
but  especially  Matth.  Flaccius  Illyricus,  who  was  the 
very  soul  of  the  undertaking.  They  set  themselves 
to  traverse  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  and  all  the  ancient 
monuments  of  the  church,  collecting  whatever  made  to 
their  purpose,  which  v.ith  indefatigable  pains  they  digest- 
ed into  an  ecclesiastic  history.  This  they  divided  into 
centuries,  and  each  century  into  fifteen  chapters,  into  each 

2 


10  TO  THE  READER. 

of  which,  as  into  its  proper  classes  and  repository,  they 
reduced  whatever  concerned  the  propagation  of  reUgion, 
the  peace  or  persecutions  of  the  Christians,  the  doctrines 
of  the  church,  the  heresies  that  arose  in  it,  the  rites  and 
ceremonies,  the  government,  schisms,  councils,  bishops, 
and  persons  noted  either  for  religion  or  learning,  heretics, 
martyrs,  miracles,  the  state  of  the  Jews,  the  religion  of 
tliem  that  were  xvithout^  and  the  political  revolutions  of 
that  age.  A  method  accurate  and  useful,  and  w^hich  admi- 
nisters to  a  very  distinct  and  particular  understanding  the 
affairs  of  the  church.  The  four  first  centuries  were 
finished  in  the  city  of  Magdeburg,  the  rest  elsewhere.  A 
work  of  prodigious  diligence  and  singular  use.  True  it 
is,  that  it  labours  under  some  faults  and  imperfections, 
and  is  chargeable  with  considerable  errors  and  mistakes. 
And  no  wonder:  for  besides  that  the  persons  themselves 
may  be  supposed  to  have  been  sometimes  betrayed  into 
an  *^£T|ict  -f  civb-=>.Kic  by  the  heats  and  contentions  of  those 
times,  it  \vas  the  first  attempt  in  this  kind,  and  which 
never  passed  the  emendations  of  a  second  review  ;  an  un- 
dertaking vast  and  diffusive,  and  engaged  in  while  books 
were  yet  more  scarce  and  less  correct.  Accordingly 
they  modestly  enough  confess,  that  they  rather  attempt- 
ed a  delineation  of  church-history,^  than  one  that  was 
complete  and  absolute,  desiring  only  to  minister  oppor- 
tunity to  those  who  were  able  and  willing  to  furnish  out 
one  more  entire  and  perfect.  And  yet,  take  it  with  all  the 
faults  and  disadvantages  that  can  be  charged  upon  it^ 
and  they  bear  no  proportion  to  the  usefulness  and  excel- 
lency of  the  thing  itself. 

No  sooner  did  this  work  come  abroad  but  it  made  a 
loud  nose  and  bustle  at  Rome,  as  wherein  the  corruptions 
and  innovations  of  that  church  were  sufficiently  exposed 
and  laid  open  to  the  world.  Accordingly  it  was  necessa- 
ry that  an  antidote  should  be  provided  against  it.  For 
which  purpose  Philip  Nereus  (who  had  lately  founded 
the  oratorian  order  at  Rome)  commands  Baronius,  then 
a  very  young  man,  and  newly  entered  into  the  congrega- 

g  PrxKit.  in  Hist.Eccles.  prscnx.  Cent.  I. 


TO  THE  READER.  u 

tion  to  undertake  it,  and  in  order  thereunto,  duily  to  read 
nothing  bat  ecclesiastical  lectures  in  the  oratory.  This 
course  he  held  for  thirty  years  together,  several  times 
going  over  the  history  of  the  church.  Thus  trained  up, 
and  abundantly  furnished  with  with  fit  materials,  he  sets 
upon  the  work  itself,  which  he  disposed  by  way  of  annals 
comprising  the  affairs  of  the  whole  Christian  world  in  the 
orderly  seric'a  and  succession  of  every  year.  A  method 
much  more  natural  and  historical  than  that  of  the  centu- 
ries. A  noble  design,  and  which  it  were  injustice  to  de- 
fraud of  its  due  praise  and  commendation,  as  wherein  be- 
sides whatever  occurrences  that  concern  the  state  of  the 
church,  reduced  (as  far  as  his  skill  in  chronology  could 
enable  him)  under  their  proper  periods,  he  has  brought 
to  light  many  passages  of  the  ancients  not  known  befi^re, 
peculiarly  advantaged  herein  by  the  many  noble  libraries 
that  are  at  Rome.  A  monument  of  incredible  pains  and 
labour,  as  which  besides  the  difliculties  of  the  thing  it- 
self was  entirely  caiTied  on  by  his  single  endeavours, 
and  written  all  with  his  own  hand,  and  that  too  in  the 
midst  of  infinite  avocations,  the  distractions  of  a  parish 
cure,  the  private  affairs  of  his  own  oratoiy,  preaching, 
heai'ing  confessions,  writing  other  books,  not  to  men- 
tion the  many  troublesome  though  honourable  offices 
and  employments,  which  in  the  course  of  the  work  were 
heaped  upon  him.  In  short,  a  work  it  was,  by  Vvhich  he 
had  infinitely  more  obliged  the  world,  than  can  be  well 
expressed,  had  he  managed  it  with  as  much  faithfulness 
and  impartiality  as  he  has  done  with  leai'ning  and  indus- 
try. But  alas,  too  evident  it  is,  that  he  designed  not 
so  much  the  ad\ancement  of  truth,  as  the  honour  and  in- 
terest of  a  cause,  and  therefore  drew  the  face  of  the  an- 
cient church,  not  as  antiquity  truly  represents  it,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  present  form  and  complexion  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  forcing  every  thing  to  look  that  way,  to  justify 
the  traditions  and  practices,  and  to  exalt  the  superemi- 
nent  power  and  grandeur  of  that  church,  making  both 
the  sceptre  and  tb.e  crosier  stoop  to  the  triple  crown. 
This  is  that  that  runs  almost  through  every  page,  and  in- 


U  TO  THE  READER. 

deed  both  he  ''himself,  and  the  writer'  of  his  life,  more 
than  once,  expressly  affirms,  that  his  desi,^i  was  to  defend 
the  traditions,  and  to  preserve  the  dignity  of  that  church 
against  the  late  innovators,  and  the  labours  of  the  Mag- 
deburgensian  centuriators,  and  that  the  opposing  of  them 
was  the  occasion  of  that  work.  So  fatally  does  partiality 
and  the  interest  of  a  cause  spoil  the  most  brave  and  ge- 
nerous undertakings. 

Wliat  has  been  hitherto  prefaced,  the  reader,  I  hope, 
will  not  censure  as  an  unprofitable  digression,  nor  think 
it  altogether  unsuitable  to  the  present  work,  whereof  'tis 
like  he  will  expect  some  short  account.  Being  some 
time  since  engaged,  I  know  not  how,  in  searching  after 
the  antiquities  of  the  apostolic  age,  I  was  then  strongly 
importuned  to  have  carried  on  the  design  for  some  of 
the  succeeding  ages.  This  I  then  wholly  laid  aside, 
without  any  further  thoughts  of  resuming  it.  For 
experience  had  made  me  sufficiently  sensible  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  thing,  and  I  well  foresav.'  how  almost  im- 
possible it  was  to  be  managed  to  any  tolerable  satisfac- 
tion ;  so  small  and  inconsiderable,  so  broken  and  imper- 
fect are  the  accounts  that  ai-e  left  us  of  those  early  times. 
Not^\ithstanding  which,  I  have  once  more  suffered  my- 
self to  be  engageo  in  it,  and  have  endeavoured  to  hunt 
out,  and  gather  together  those  ruins  of  primiti^  e  storj^ 
that  yet  remain,  that  I  might  do  what  honour  I  was  able 
to  the  memory  of  those  brave  and  worthy  men,  who  ^vere 
so  instrumental  to  plant  Christianity  in  the .\\orld,  to  seal 
it  with  their  blood,  and  to  oblige  posterity  by  those  ex- 
cellent monuments  of  learning  and  piety  which  they  left 
behind  them,  I  have  bounded  my  account  within  the 
first  three  hundred  yeai's,  notwithstanding  the  barrenness 
and  obscurity  of  those  ages  of  the  church.  Had  I  con- 
sulted my  own  ease  or  credit,  I  should  have  commenced 
my  design  from  that  time,  which  is  the  period  of  my 
present  undertaking,  viz.  the  following  saeculum,  when 
Christianity  became  th.e  religion  of  the  empire,  and  the 
record;^  of  the  church  furnish  us  with  lai'ge  and  plentiful 

h  E;)ist.  Decl.  ml  Sixt.  V.  Tom.  1.  Aiinal.  Prsefix. 

i  Hier.  Raj-nab.  de  vit.  Barcn.  1    1.  c.  18.  p  40.  c.  19  p.  43. 


TO  THE  READER.  13 

materials  for  such  a  work.  But  I  confess  my  humour 
and  inclination  led  me  to  the  first  and  best  ages  of  reli- 
gion, the  memoirs  wheieot  1  have  picked  up,  and  thereby 
enabled  myself  to  draw  the  lineaments  of  as  many  of 
those  apostolical  persons,  as  concerning  whom  I  could 
retrieve  any  considerable  notices  and  accounts  of  things. 
With  what  success,  the  reader  must  judge  :  with  whom 
what  entertainment  it  will  find,  I  know  not,  nor  am  I 
much  solicitous.  I  have  done  what  I  could,  and  am  not 
conscious  to  myself,  that  I  have  been  wanting  in  any 
point  either  of  fidelity  or  care.  If  there  be  fewer  persons 
here  described  than  the  space  of  almost  three  hundred 
years  may  seem  to  promise  and  less  said  concerning 
some  of  them  than  the  reader  does  expect,  he  w  ill  I  pre- 
sume be  more  just  aud  charitable  than  to  charge  it  up- 
on me,  but  rather  impute  it  to  the  unhappy  fate  of  so 
many  ancient  records  as  have  been  lost  through  the 
carelessness  and  unfaithfulness  of  succeeding  times.  As 
far  as  my  mean  abilities  do  reach,  and  the  nature  of  the 
thing  will  admit,  I  have  endeaA^oured  the  reader's  satis- 
faction ;  and  though  I  pretend  not  to  present  him  an  ex- 
act church  history  of  those  times  ;  yet  I  think  I  may 
without  vanity  assure  him,  that  there  is  scarce  any  ma- 
terial passage  of  church  antiquity,  of  which  in  some  of 
these  lives  he  will  not  find  a  competent  and  reasonable 
account.  Nor  is  the  history  of  those  ages  maimed  and 
lame  only  in  its  main  limbs  and  parts,  but  (what  is  great- 
ly to  be  bewailed)  purblind  and  defective  in  its  eyes,  I 
mean,  confused  and  uncertain  in  point  of  chronology. 
The  greatest  part  of  what  we  have  is  from  Eusebius,  in 
whose  account  of  times  some  things  are  false,  more  un- 
certain, and  the  whole  the  worse  for  passing  through 
other  hands  after  his.  Indeed  next  to  the  recovering  the 
lost  portions  of  antiquity,  I  know  nothing  would  be 
more  acceptable,  than  the  setting  right  the  disjointed 
frame  of  those  times :  a  cure  A\'hich  we  hope  for  shortly 
from  a  very  able  hand.  In  the  mean  time  for  mv  own 
part,  and  so  far  as  may  be  useful  to  the  purposes  of  the 
following  papers,  I  have,  by  the  best  measures  I  could 
take  in.  some  haste,  dravni  up  a  chronology  of  these  three 


H  TO  THE  READER. 

ages,  which  thcoigh  it  pretends  not  to  the  utmost  exact- 
ness and  accuracy  that  is  due  to  a  matter  of  this  nature, 
yet  it  will  serve,  however,  to  give  a  quick  and  present 
prospect  of  things,  and  to  show  the  connexion  and  con- 
currence of  ecclesiastical  affairs  with  the  times  of  the  Ro- 
man empire.  So  far  as  I  follow  Eusebius,  I  principally 
rely  upon  the  accounts  given  in  history  which  being 
written  after  his  Chronicon,  may  be  supposed  the  issue 
of  his  more  exact  researches,  and  to  have  passed  the 
judgment  of  his  riper  and  more  considering  thoughts. 
And  perhaps  the  reader  will  say  (and  I  confess  1  am 
somewhat  of  his  mind)  had  I  observed  the  same  rule  to- 
wards these  papers,  he  had  never  been  troubled  with 
them.  But  that  is  too  late  now  to  be  recalled  ;  and  it  is 
folly  to  bewail  what  is  impossible  to  be  r-emedied. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  several  periods  of  the  three  first  ages.     Our  Lord's  coming,  anS. 
the  seasonublcness  of  it  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel.  His  entrance 
upon  his  prophetic   office,  and  the  sum  of  his  ministry.     The  success 
of  liis  doctrine,  and  the  several  places   where  he  preached.     The 
story  of  Agbarus  not   altogether  improbable.       Our  Lord's    death. 
What  attestation  given  to  the  passages  concerning  Christ  by  heathen 
writers.    The  testimony  of  Tacitus.    Pilate's  relation  sent  to  Tiberius, 
The  acts  of  Pilate  what.      Pilate's  letter  now  extant  spurious.     The 
apostles   entering   upon  their   commission,    and   first  acts  after  our 
Lord's  ascension.     How  long  they  continued  in  Judea.     Their  disper- 
sion to  preach  in  the  Gentile  provinces,  and  the  success  of  it.     The 
state  of  the  Church  after  the  apostolic  age.     The  mighty  progress  of 
Christianity.     The  numbers  and  quality  of  its  converts.     Its  speedy 
and  incredible   success  in   all   countries,   noted  out  of  the  writers   oi 
those  times.     The  early  conversion  of  Britain  to  Christianity.     The 
general  declension  of  Paganism.      The  silence  and  ceasing  of  their 
oracles.      This  acknowledged  by  Porphyry  to  be  the  effect  of  the 
Christian  religion  appearing  in  the  world.     A  great  argument  of  its 
truth  and  divinity.     The  means  contributing  to  the  success  of  Chris- 
tianity.    The  miraculous  powers  then  resident   in  the  church.     This 
proved  at  large  out  of  the  pi-imitive  writers.     The  great  learning  and 
abilities  of  many  of  tlie  church's  champions.     The  most  eminent  of 
the  Christian  apologists.    The  principal  of  them  that  engaged  r.gainst 
the  heresies  of  those  times.     Others  renowned  for  other  parts  of  learn- 
ing.    The  indefatigable  zeal  and  industry  used  in  the  propagation   of 
Christianity.      Instructing  and  catechising  new   converts.      Schools 
ei-ected.     Travelling  to  preach  in  all  parts  of  the  world.      The  admi- 
rable lives  of  the   ancient  Christians.     The  singular  efficacy  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  upon  the  minds  of  men.  A  holy  life  the  most  accepy- 
table  sacrifice.     Their  incomparable  patience  and  constancy  under 
sufferings.     A  brief  survey  of  the  ten  persecutions.     The  first  begun 
by  Nero.      His  brutish  extravagancies,  and  inhuman  cruelties.     His 
burning  Rome,    and  the    dreadfulness   of  that  conflagration.      This 
charged  upon  the  Christians,  and  their  several  kinds  of  punishment 
noted  out  of  Tacitus.     The  chief  of  them  that  suffered.     The  perse- 
cution under  Domitian.     The  vices  of  that  prince.     The  cruel  usage 
of  St.  John.     The  third  begun  by   Trajan.     His  character.     His  pro- 
ceeding against  the   Christians  as  illegal  societies,      Pliny's  letter  to 
Trajan    concerning    the    Christians,    with    the  emperor's  answer. 
Adrian,  Trajan's  successor  ;   a  mixture  in   him  of  vice  and  virtue. 
His  persecuting   the  Christians.     This  the  fourth  persecution.     The 
mitigation   of  it,   and  its  breaking  out  again  under  Antoninus  Pius. 
The  excellent  temper  and  learning  of  M.  Aurelius.      The  fifth  perse- 
ciition  raised  by  him.    Its  fierceness  in  the  East,  at  Rome,  especially 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

in  France  ;  the  most  eminent  that  suffered  there.  The  emperor « 
victory  in  his  German  wars  gained  b)^  the  Christians'  prayers.  Se- 
verus's  temper  :  his  cruelty  towards  the  Christians.  The  chief  ol" 
the  martyrs  under  the  sixth  persecution.  IVIaximinus  his  immode- 
rate ambition  and  barbarous  cruelty.  The  author  of  the  seventh  per- 
secution. This  not  universal.  The  common  evils  and  calamities 
charged  upon  the  Christians.  Decius  the  eighth  persecutor ;  other- 
wise an  excellent  prince.  The  violence  of  this  persecution,  and  the 
most  noted  sufferers.  The  foundations  of  monachim  when  laid. 
The  ninth  persecution,  and  its  rage  under  Valerian.  The  most  emi- 
nent martyrs.  The  severe  punishment  ofValerien:  his  miserable 
usage  by  the  Persian  king.  The  tenth  persecution  begun  under  Dio- 
clesian,  and  when.  The  fierceness  and  cruelty  of  that  time.  The 
admirable  carriage  and  resolution  of  the  Christians  under  all  these 
sufferings.  The  proper  influence  of  this  argument  to  convince  the 
world.  The  whole  concluded  with  Lactantius's  excellent  reason- 
ings to  this  purpose. 

THE  state  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  three 
first  ages  of  it  may  be  considered  under  a  three  fold  pe- 
riod :  as  it  was  first  planted  and  established  by  our  Lord 
himself  during  his  residence  in  the  world ;  as  it  was  en- 
larged and  propagated  by  the  apostles,  and  first  mission- 
aries of  the  Christian  faith  ;  and  as  it  grew  up  and  pros- 
pered from  the  apostolic  age  till  the  times  of  Constantine, 
when  the  empire  submitted  itself  to  Christianity.  God, 
who  in  former  times  was  pleased  by  various  methods  of 
revelation  to  convey  his  will  to  mankind,  hath  in  these 
hist  days  spoken  to  us  by  his  Son.  For  the  great  blessing 
of  the  promised  seed  after  a  long  succession  of  several 
ages  being  come  to  its  just  maturity  and  perfection,  God 
was  resolved  to  perforin  the  mercy  promised  to  the  father  s^ 
and  to  remember  his  holy  covenant.,  the  oath  which  he  sware 
to  our  father  Abraham,  Accordingly,  in  the  fuhiess  of 
time  God  sent  his  Son.  It  was  in  the  declining  part  of 
Augustus's  reign,  when  this  great  ambassador  arrived 
from  heaven,  to  publish  to  the  world  the  glad  tidings  of 
salvation.  A  period  of  time  (as'^Origen  observes)  wisely 
ordered  by  the  divine  Providence.  For  the  Roman  em- 
pire being  now  in  the  highest  pitch  of  its  grandeur,  all 
its  parts  united  under  a  monarchical  government,  and  an 
universal  peace  spread  over  all  the  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire, that  had  opened  a  way  to  a  free  and  uninterrupted, 

a  Contr  Ccls.  lib.  2.  p.  79. 


INTRODUCTION.  1? 

commerce  with  all  nations,  a  smoother  and  speedier  pas- 
sage was  hereby  prepared  for  the  publishing  the  doctrine 
of  the  gospel,  which  the  apostles  and  first  preachers  of  re- 
ligion might  with  the  greater  ease  and  security  carry  up 
and  down  to  all  quarters  of  the  world.  As  for  the  Jews, 
their  minds  were  awakened  about  this  time  with  busy 
expectations  of  their  Messiah's  coming  :  and  no  sooner 
was  the  birth  of  the  holy  Jesus  proclaimed  by  the  arrival 
of  the  eastern  magi,  who  came  to  pay  homage  to  him, 
but  Jerusalem  was  filled  with  noise  and  tumult,  the  San- 
hedrin  was  convened,  and  consulted  by  Herod,  who  jea- 
lous of  his  late  gotten  sovereignty,  was  resolved  to  dis- 
patch this  new  competitor  out  of  the  way.  Deluded  in 
his  hopes  of  discovery  by  the  magi,  he  betakes  himself 
to  acts  of  open  force  and  cruelty,  commanding  all  infants 
under  two  years  old  to  be  put  to  death,  and  among  them 
it  seems  his  own  son,  which  made  ^  Augustus  pleasantly 
say  (alluding  to  the  Jewish  custom  of  abstaining  from 
swine's  flesh)  It  is  better  to  be  HerocPs  hug  than  his  son. 
But  the  providence  of  God  secured  the  holy  infant,  by 
timely  admonishing  his  parents  to  retire  into  Egypt, 
where  they  remained  till  the  death  of  Herod,  which  hap- 
pening not  long  after,  they  returned. 

2.  Near  thirty  years  our  Lord  remained  obscure  un- 
der the  retirements  of  a  private  life,  applying  himself, 
(as  the  ancients  tell  us,  and  the  evangelical  history  plainly 
intimates)  to  Joseph's  employment,  the  trade  of  a  carpen- 
ter. So  little  patronage  did  he  give  to  an  idle  unaccoun- 
table course  of  life.  But  now  he  was  called  out  of  his 
shades  and  solitudes,  and  publicly  owned  to  be  that  per- 
son whom  God  had  sent  to  be  the  great  prophet  of  his 
church.  This  was  done  at  his  baptism,  when  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  a  visible  shape  descended  upon  him,  and  God, 
by  an  audible  voice  testified  of  him  This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  we /I  pleased.  Accordingly,  he  set 
himself  to  declare  the  counsels  of  God,  going  about  all 
Galilee,  teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and  preaching  the 
gospel  of  the  Kingdom.  He  particularly  explained  the 
moral  law,   and  restored  it  to  its  just  authority  and  do- 

h  Macrob.  Saturnal.l.  2.  c.  4.  p.  279. 
C 


18  INTRODUCTION^ 

minion  over  tlie  minds  of  men,  redeeming  it  from  those 
corrupt  and  perverse  interpretations  which  the  masters 
of  the  Jewish  church  had  put  upon  it.  He  next  in- 
sinuated the  abrogation  of  the  Mosaic  economy,  to 
which  he  was  sent  to  put  a  period,  to  enlarge  the  bounds 
of  salvation,  and  admit  both  Jew  and  Gentile  to  terms 
of  mercy  :  that  he  came  as  a  mediator  between  God  and 
man,  to  reconcile  the  world  to  the  favour  of  Heaven  by 
his  death  and  sufferings,  and  to  propound  pardon  of  sin 
and  eternal  life  to  ail  that  by  an  hearty  belief,  a  sincere 
repentance,  and  an  holy  life,  were  willirig  to  embrace 
and  entertain  it.  This  was  the  sum  of  the  doctrine  which 
he  preached  every  where,  as  opportunity  and  occasion 
led  him,  and  which  he  did  not  impose  upon  the  world 
merely  upon  the  account  of  his  own  authority  and  pow- 
er, or  beg  a  precarious  entertainment  of  it ;  he  did  not 
tell  men  they  must  believe  him,  because  he  said  he  came 
from  God,  and  had  his  warrant  and  commission  to  in- 
struct and  reform  the  world,  but  gave  them  the  most  sa- 
tisfactory and  convictive  evidence,  by  doing  such  mira- 
cles as  were  beyond  all  powers  and  contrivances  either 
of  art  or  nature,  whereby  he  unanswerably  demonstrated, 
that  he  was  a  Teacher  come  from.  God,  in  that  no  man 
could  do  tliose  miracles  tvhich  he  did  except  God  were 
xvitli  him.  And  because  he  himself  was  in  a  little  time 
to  return  back  to  heaven,  he  ordained  twelve,  whom  he 
called  apostles  as  his  immediate  delegates  and  vicege- 
rents, to  whom  he  deputed  his  authority  and  power, 
furnished  them  with  miraculous  gifts,  and  left  them  to 
carry  on  that  excellent  religion  which  he  himself  had 
begun,  to  whose  assistance  he  joined  seventy  disciples, 
as  ordinary  coadjutors  and  companions  to  them  Their 
commission  for  the  present  was  limited  to  Palestine,  and 
they  sent  out  only  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
house  of  Israel. 

3.  How  great  the  success  of  our  Saviour's  ministry 
was,  may  be  guessed  from  that  complaint  of  the  phari- 
sees,  Behold  the  ivorld  is  gone  after  him,  "  people  from 
all  parts  in  such  vast  multiti  des  flocking  after  him,  that 

C  John  X2. 19. 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

they  gave  him  not  time  for  necessary  solitude  and  re- 
tirement. Indeed  he  went  about  doing  good,  preaching 
the  xvord  throughout  all  Judea,  and  healing  all  that  were 
possessed  of  the  devil.  'I'he  seat  of  his  ordinary  abode 
was  Galilee,  residing  for  the  most  part  (^ays  one  of  the 
ancients"  )  hi  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,  that  he  might  there 
sow  and  reap  the  first  fruits  of  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles. 
Weusuallv  find  him  preaching  at  Nazareth,  at  Cana,  at 
Corazin  and  Bethsaida,  and  the  cities  about  the  sea  of 
Tiberias,  but  especially  at  Capernaum,  the  metropolis 
of  the  province,  a  place  of  great  commerce  and  traffic. 
He  often  visited  Judca,  and  the  parts  about  Jerusalem, 
whither  he  was  wont  to  go  up  at  the  paschal  solemnities, 
and  some  of  the  greater  festivals,  that  so  the  general 
concourse  of  people  at  those  times  might  minister  the 
fitter  opportunity  to  spread  the  net,  and  to  communi- 
cate and  impart  his  doctrine  to  them.  Nor  did  he  who 
■was  to  be  a  common  Saviour,  and  came  to  break  down 
the  partition  wall,  disdain  to  converse  with  the  Samari- 
tans, so  contemptible  and  hateful  to  the  Jews.  In  Sy- 
char,  not  far  from  Samaria,  he  freely  preached,  and 
gained  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  city  to  be  prose- 
lytes to  his  doctrine.  He  travelled  up  and  down  the 
towns  and  villages  of  Caesarea  Philippi,  and  went  into 
the  borders  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  through  the  midst 
of  the  coasts  of  Decapolis,  and  where  he  could  not 
come,  the  renown  of  him  spread  itself,  bringing  him 
disciples  and  followers  from  all  quarters.  Indeed  his 
fame  went  throughout  all  Syria,  and  there  followed  him 
great  multitudes  of  people  from  Galilee,  Jiidea,  Deca- 
polis, Idumia,  from  beyond  Jordan,  and  from  Tyre  and 
Sidon.  Nay  might  we  believe  the  story,  so  solemnly 
reported  by  Eusebius  "  and  the  ancients  (and  excep- 
ting the  silence  of  the  evangelical  historians,  who  record- 
ed only  some  of  the  actions  and  passages  concerning 
our  Saviour,  I  know  no  wise  argument  against  it) 
Acbarus  prince  of  Edessa  beyond  Euphrates,  having 
heard  of  the  fame  of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  by  letters 
humbly  besought  him  to  come  over  to  him,  whose  let- 
ter, together  ^v•ith  our  Lord's  answer,  are  extant  in  Eu- 

d  Euseb.  Demonstrat.  Evang.  1.  9.  p. 439.  c  H.Eccl. 1. 1.  c.  13.  p,  31. 


iiO  INTRODUCTION. 

sebius,  there  being  nothing  in  the  letters  themselves 
that  may  justly  shake  their  credit  and  authority,  with 
much  more  to  this  purpose,  transcribed  (as  he  tells  us) 
out  of  the  records  of  that  city,  and  by  him  translated 
out  of  Syriac  into  Greek,  which  may  give  us  some  ac- 
count why  none  of  the  ancients  before  him  make  any 
mention  of  this  affair,  being  generally  strangers  to  the 
language,  the  customs,  and  antiquities  of  those  eastern 
countries. 

4.  Our  Lord  having  spent  somewhat  more  than 
three  years  in  the  public  exercise  of  his  ministry,  kept 
his  last  passover  with  his  apostles  ;  which  done,  he 
instituted  the  sacramental  supper,  consigning  it  to  his 
church  as  the  standing  memorial  of  his  death,  and  the 
seal  of  the  evangelical  covenant,  as  he  appointed  bap- 
tism to  be  the  federal  rite  of  initiation,  and  the  public 
Tessera  or  badge  of  those  that  should  profess  his  reli- 
gion. And  now  the  fatal  hour  was  at  hand.  Being  be- 
trayed by  the  treachery  of  one  of  his  own  apostles,  he 
was  apprehended  by  the  officers  and  brought  before  the 
public  tribunals.  Heavy  were  the  crimes  charged  upon 
him,  but  as  false  as  spiteful.  The  two  main  articles  of  the 
charge  were  blasphemy  against  God,  and  treason  against 
the  emperor  :  and  though  they  were  not  able  to  m^ake 
them  good  by  an}-  tolerable  pretence  of  proof,  yet  did 
they  condemn  and  execute  him  upon  the  cross,  several 
of  themselves  vindicating  his  innocency,  that  he  was  a 
righteous  man,  and  the  Son  of  God.  The  third  day  af- 
ter  his  interment  he  rose  again,  appeared  to  and  con- 
versed with  his  disciples  and  followers,  and  having  taken 
care  of  the  affairs  of  his  church,  given  a  larger  commis- 
sion, and  fuller  instructions  to  his  apostles,  he  took  his 
leave  of  them,  and  visibly  ascended  into  Heaven,  and 
sat  doxvn  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  as  head  over  all  things 
to  tlie  church,  angels^  authorities  and  powers  being  made 
subject  unto  him. 

5.  The  faith  of  these  passages  concerning  our  Sa- 
viour, are  not  only  secured  to  us  by  the  report  of  the 
evangelical  historians,  and  that  justified  by  eye-wit- 
nesses, the  evidence  of  miracles,  and  the  successive  and 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

uncontrolled  consent  of  all  aj^es  of  the  church,  but  (as 
to  the  substance  of  them)  by  the  plain  confession  of 
Heathen  writers,  and  the  enemies  of  Christianity.  '^  Ta- 
citus tells  us,  that  the  author  of  this  religion  was  Christ, 
who  under  the  reign  of  Tiberius  was  put  to  death  by 
Pontius  Pilate,  the  procurator  of  Judea :  whereby, 
though  this  detestable  superstition  was  suppressed  for 
the  present,  yet  did  it  break  out  again,  spreading  itself 
not  only  through  Judea,  the  fountain  ol  the  mischief, 
but  in  the  very  city  of  Rome  itself,  where  whatever  is 
wicked  and  shameful  meet  together,  and  is  greedily 
advanced  into  reputation.  ^  Eusebius  assures  us,  that 
after  our  Lord's  ascension,  Pilate  according  to  custom, 
sent  an  account  of  him  to  the  emperor,  wliich  Tiberius 
brought  before  the  senate,  but  they  rejected  it  under 
pretence  that  cognizance  had  been  taken  of  it  before  it 
came  to  them  ;  it  being  a  fundamental  Law  of  the  Roman 
state,  that  no  new  god  could  be  taken  in  without  the  de- 
cree of  the  senate ;  but  that  however  Tiberius  conti- 
nued his  good  thoughts  of  Christ  and  kindness  to  the 
Christians.  For  this  he  cites  the  testimony  of  Ter- 
tuUian,  who  in  his  ''  apology  presented  to  the  Roman 
powers  affirms,  that  Tiberius,  in  whose  time  the  Chris- 
tian religion  entered  into  the  world,  having  received  an 
account  from  Pilate  out  of  Palestine  in  Syria  concerning 
the  truth  of  that  divinity  that  was  there,  brought  it  to 
the  senate  with  the  prerogative  of  his  own  vote  :  but 
that  the  senate,  because  they  had  not  before  approved 
of  it,  would  not  admit  it ;  however  the  emperor  conti- 
nued of  the  same  mind,  and  threatened  punishment  to 
them  that  accused  the  Christians.  And  before  Tertul- 
lian,  Justin  Martyr  '  speaking  concerning  the  death  and 
sufferings  of  our  Saviour,  tells  the  emperors,  that  they 
might  satisfy  themselves  in  the  truth  of  these  things 
from  the  acts  written  under  Pontius  Pilate.  It  being 
customary  not  only  at  Rome  to  keep  the  acts  of  the  se- 
nate and  the  people,   but  for  he  governors  of  provin- 

f  Annal.  I.  15-  c.  44.  p.  319. 

?  H  Eccl.  1.  2  c.  2.  p.  40.  vid.  Oros.  adv.  pag.  1.  7.  c.  4.  fol.  292. 

b  Apol..g.  c.  5.  p.  6.  Sc  c.  21.  p.  20,  i    ApoK'-.  II.  p.  76. 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

ces  to  keep  account  of  what  memorable  things  hap- 
pened  in  their  government,  the  acts  whereof  they  trans- 
mitted  to  the  emperor.  And  thus  did  Pihite  during 
the  procuratorship  of  his  province.  How  long  these 
acts  remained  in  being,  I  know  not  :  but  in  the  contro- 
versy about  Easter,  we  find  the  Quartodecimans  *"  jus- 
tifying the  day  on  which  they  observed  it  from  the  acts 
of  Pilate,  wherein  they  gloried  that  they  had  found  the 
truth.  Whether  these  were  the  acts  of  Pilate,  to  which 
Justin  appealed,  or  rather  those  acts  of  Pilate  drawn  up 
and  published  by  the  command  of  '  Maximinus,  Dio- 
clesian's  successor,  in  disparagement  of  our  Lord  and  his 
religion,  is  uncertain,  but  the  latter  of  the  two  far  more 
probable.  However,  Pilate's  letter  to  Tiberius  (or,  as 
he  is  there  called  Claudius)  at  this  day  extant  in  the 
Anacephal':«osis  ™  of  the  younger  Egesippus,  is  of  no 
great  credit,  though  that  author  challenges  greater  an- 
tiquity than  some  allow  him,  being  probably  contempo- 
rary* with  St.  Ambrose,  and  by  many,  from  the  great 
conformity  of  style  and  phrase,  thought  to  be  St.  Am- 
brose himself,  who  with  some  few  additions  compiled 
it  out  of  Josephus.  But  then  it  is  to  be  considered, 
whether  that  Anacephaleeosis  be  done  by  the  same,  or 
(which  is  most  probable)  by  a  much  later  hand.  Some 
other  particLdar  passages  concerning  our  Saviour  are 
taken  notice  of  by  Gentile  writers,  the  a])pearance  of  the 
star  by  Calcidius,  the  murder  of  the  infants  by  Macro- 
bius,  the  eclipse  at  our  Saviour's  passion  by  Phlegon 
Trallianus  (not  to  speak  of  his  miracles  frequently  ac- 
knowledged by  Celsus,  Julian,  and  Porphyry)  which  I 
shall  not  insist  upon. 

6.  Immediately  after  our  Lord's  ascension  (from 
whence  we  date  the  next  period  of  the  church)  the  apos- 
tles began  to  execute  the  powers  intrusted  with  them. 
They  presently  filled  up  Juclas's  vacancy  by  the  election 
of  a  new  apostle,  the  lot  falling  upon  Matthias,  and  he  was 
7iumbered  with  the  eleven  apostles.  Being  next  endued 
Avith  power  fiom  on  high  (as  our  Lord  had  promised 

k  Ap.  Epiph.  Hxres.  L.  p.  182.  1  EuBcb.  H.  Eccl.  I.  9.  c.  5,  p.  o50.. 

m  A<ncal>:fin  1.  de  Excid.  urb.  Hieros.  p.  633. 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

them)  furnished  with  the  miraculous  t^ifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  they  set  themselves  to  preach  in  places  of  the 
greatest  concourse,  and  to  the  faces  of  their  greatest  ene- 
mies. They  who  but  a  while  before  fled  at  the  approach 
of  danger,  now  boldly  plead  the  cause  of  their  crucified 
master,  with  the  immediate  hazard  of  their  lives.  And 
that  nothing  might  interrupt  them  in  this  employment, 
they  instituted  the  office  of  deacons,  who  might  attend 
the  inferior  str\  ices  of  the  church  while  they  devoted 
themselves  to  what  was  more  immediately  necessaiy  to 
the  good  of  souis.  By  which  prudent  course  religion 
got  ground  apace,  and  innumerable  converts  were  daily 
added  to  the  faith  :  till  a  persecution  arising  upon  St. 
Stephen's  martyrdom,  banished  the  church  out  of  Jeru- 
salem, though  this  also  proved  its  advantage  in  the  event 
and  issue,  Christianity  being  by  this  means  the  sooner 
spread  up  and  down  the  neighbour  countries.  The  apos- 
tles notwithstanding  the  rage  of  the  persecution,  remained 
still  at  Jerusalem,  only  now  and  then  despatching  some 
few  of  their  number  to  confirm  and  settle  the  plantations, 
and  to  propagate  the  faith,  as  the  necessities  of  the  church 
required.  And  thus  they  continued  for  near  twelve 
years  together,  our  Lord  himself  having  commanded 
them  not  to  depart  Jerusalem  and  the  parts  thereabouts, 
till  twelve  years  after  his  ascension,  as  the  ancient  tradi- 
tion mentioned  both  by  "Apollcnius,  and  "Clemens  Alex- 
anchinus  informs  us.  And  now  they  thought  it  high 
time  to  apply  themselves  to  the  full  execution  of  that 
commission  which  Christ  had  given  them,  to  go  teach  cmd 
baptize  all  nations.  Accordingly  having  settled  the 
general  affairs  and  concernments  of  the  church,  they  be- 
took themselves  to  the  several  provinces  of  the  Gentile 
world,  preaching  the  gospel  to  e^'ery  nation  under  heaven, 
so  that  CA^en  in  a  literal  sense,  their  sound  went  into  all 
the  earth,  and  their  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world. 
"  Infinite  multitudes  of  people  in  all  cities  and  countries 
^*  (says  ^Eusebius)  like  corn  into  a  well  filled  granary, 

n  Ap.  Euseb.  H.  Ecd.  1.  5.  c.  18.  p.  186. 

o  Stromat.  I.  6.  p.  636.  vid.  Life  of  St.  Peter,  Sect.  11.  num.  5. 

p  Lib.  2.  c.  .3.  p.  41. 


24  INTRODUCTION. 

*'  being  brought  in  by  that  grace  of  God  that  brings  sal- 
"  vation.  And  the\'  whose  minds  were  heretofore  dis- 
"  tempered  and  overrun  with  the  error  and  idolatry  of 
"  their  ancestors,  were  cured  by  the  sermons  and  mira- 
^'  cles  of  our  Lord's  disciples,  and  shaking  off  those  chains 
"  of  darkness  and  slavery  which  the  merciless  daemons 
"  had  put  upon  them,  freely  embraced  and  entertained 
*'  the  knowledge  and  service  of  the  only  true  God,  the 
*'  great  Creator  of  the  world,  whom  they  worshipped  ac- 
"  cording  to  the  holy  rites  and  rules  of  that  divine  and 
"  wisely  contrived  religion  which  our  Saviour  had  intro- 
*'  duced  into  the  world."  But  concerning  the  apostles' 
travels,  the  success  of  their  ministry,  the  places  and 
countries  to  which  they  went,  the  churches  they  planted, 
their  acts  and  martyrdoms  for  the  faith,  we  ha^^e  given  an 
account  in  a  work  peculiar  to  that  subject,  so  far  as  the 
records  of  those  times  have  conveyed  any  material  no- 
tices of  things  to  us.  It  may  suffice  to  observe,  that 
God  was  pleased  to  continue  St.  John  to  a  very  great  age, 
beyond  any  of  the  rest,  that  he  might  superintend  and 
cultivate,  confirm  and  establish  what  they  had  planted, 
and  be  as  a  standing  and  lively  oracle,  to  which  they 
might  from  all  parts  have  recourse  in  any  considerable 
doubts  and  exigencies  of  the  church,  and  that  he  might 
seal  and  attest  the  truth  of  those  things  which  men  of 
corru])t  and  perverse  minds,  even  then  began  to  call  in 
question. 

7.  Hence  then  we  pass  on  to  survey  the  state  of  the 
church  from  the  apostolic  age  till  the  times  of  Constan- 
tine,  for  the  space  of  at  least  two  hundred  years.  And 
under  this  period  we  shall  principally  remark  t^^'0  things. 
What  progress  the  christian  religion  made  in  the  world. 
Secondly,  What  it  was  that  contributed  to  so  vast  a 
growth  and  increase  of  it.  That  Christianity  from  the 
nature  of  its  precepts,  the  sublimeness  of  its  principles, 
its  contrariety  to  the  established  rites  and  religions  of 
the  world,  was  likely  to  find  bad  entertainment,  and  the 
fiercest  opposition,  could  not  but  be  obvious  to  every 
.  impartial  considertr  of  things  ;  which  accordingly  came 
to  pass.     For  it  met  with  all  the  discouragement,  the 


INTRODUCTION.  5tp 

secret  undermining,  and  open  assaults  which  malice  and 
prejudice,  wit  and  parts,  learning  and  power,  were  able 
to  make  upon  it.     Notwithstanding  all  which,  it  lift  up 
its  head,  and  prospered  under  the  greatest  oppositions, 
i^nd  the  triumph  of  the  christian  faith  will  appear  the 
more  considerable,  whether  we  regard  the  number  and 
quality  of  its  converts,  or  the  vast  circumference  to  which 
it  did  extend  and  diffuse  itself.     Though  it  appeared  un- 
der all  manner  of  disadvantages  to  recommend  itself,  yet 
no  sooner  did  it  set  up  its  standard,  but  persons  from  all 
parts,  and  of  all  kind  of  principles  and  educations,  began 
to  flock  to  it,  so  admirably  affecting  very  many  both  of 
the  Greeks  and  Barbarians  (as  Origen''  tells  Celsus)  and 
they  both  wise  and  unwise,  that  they  contended  for  the 
truth  of  their  religion  even  to  the  laying  down  their  lives, 
a  thing  not  known  in  any  other  profession  in  the  world. 
And  ''elsewhere  he  challenges  him  to  show  such  an  un- 
speakable multitude  of  Greeks  and  Barbarians  reposing 
such  a  confidence  in  iEsculapius,  as  he  could  of  those 
that  had  embraced  the  faith  of  the  holy  Jesus.     And 
when  *Celsus  objected  that  Christianity  was  a  clandestine 
religion,  that  skulked  and  crept  up  and  down  in  corners  ; 
Oi  igen  answers.  That  the  religion  of  the  Christians  was 
better  known  throughout  the  whole  world,  than  the  dic- 
tates of  their  best  philosophers.     Nor  were  they  only- 
mean  and  ignorant  persons  that  thus  came  over,  but  (as 
*Arnobius  observes)  men  of  the  acutest  parts  and  learning; 
orators,  grammarians,  rhetoricians,  lawyers,  physicians, 
philosophers,    despising  their  formerly    beloved    senti- 
ments, sat  down  here.     "Tertullian  addressing  himself  to 
the  Roman  governors  in  behalf  of  the  Christians,  assuies 
them,  that  although  they  were  of  no  long  standing,  yet 
that  they  had  filled  all  places  of  their  dominions,  their 
cities,  islands,    castles,   corporations,    councils,   armies, 
tribes,  companies,  the  palace,  senate,  and  courts  ot  judi- 
cature :  that  if  they  had  a  mind  to  revenge  themselves, 
they  need  not  betake  themselves  to  clancular  and  sculk- 

q  Contr.  Gels.  1. 1.  p.  21.  22.  r  Ibid.  1   3.  p   124. 

s  lb.  1.  1.  p  7.  t  Adv.  Gent.  1.  2.  p.  21. 

n  Apol.  c.  ."7.  p.  ."0. 


26  INTRODUCTION. 

ing  arts.  Their  numbers  were  great  enough  to  appear  in 
open  arms,  having  a  party  not  in  this  or  that  province, 
but  in  all  quarters  of  the  world  :  nay,  that  naked  as  they 
were,  they  could  be  sufficiently  revenged  upon  them  ; 
for  should  they  but  all  agree  to  retire  out  of  the  Roman 
empire,  the  world  would  stand  amazed  at  that  solitude 
and  desolation  that  would  ensue  upon  it,  and  they  would 
have  more  enemies  than  friends  or  citizens  left  among 
them.  And  he  *bids  the  president  Scapula  consider, 
that  if  he  went  on  with  the  persecution,  what  he  would 
do  with  those  many  thousands  both  of  men  and  women, 
of  all  ranks  and  ages,  that  would  readily  offer  themselves, 
what  fires  and  swords  he  must  have  to  despatch  them. 
Nor  is  this  any  more  than  what  '"Pliny  himself  confesses 
to  the  emperor,  that  the  case  of  the  Christians  was  a  mat- 
ter worthy  of  deliberation,  especially  by  reason  of  the 
multitudes  that  were  concerned,  for  that  many  of  each 
sex,  of  every  age  and  quality  were  and  must  be  called  in 
question,  this  superstition  having  infected  and  overrun 
not  the  city  only,  but  towns  and  countries,  the  temples 
and  sacrifices  being  generally  desolate  and  forsaken. 

8.  Nor  was  it  thus  only  in  some  parts  and  provinces 
of  the  Roman  empire,  but  in  most  nations  and  countries. 
"Justin  Martyr  tells  the  Jew,  that  whatever  they  might 
boast  of  the  universality  of  their  religion,  there  were  ma- 
ny places  of  the  world  whither  neither  they  nor  it  ever 
came:  whereas  there  was  no  part  of  mankind,  whether 
Greeks  or  Barbarians,  or  by  what  name  soe\'er  they  were 
called,  even  the  most  rude  and  unpolished  nations,  v^  here 
prayers  and  thanksgivings  were  not  made  to  the  great 
Creator  of  the  world  through  the  name  of  the  crucified 
Jesus.  The  same  Bardesanes^  the  Syrian,  Justin's  con- 
temporary, affirms,  that  the  followers  of  the  Christian  in- 
stitution, though  living  in  different  parts  of  the  world, 
and  being  very  numerous  in  every  climate  and  country, 
were  yet  all  called  by  the  name  of  Christians.     So  ^Lac- 

V  Ad.  Scapul.  c.  4  p.  71.  w  Ad.  Trnj.  lib.  10.  Epist.  97. 

X  Dial,  cum  Tryjih.  p.  345. 

y  Lib.  de  Fat.  ap-  Eust  h   Praep  Evang.  1.  6.  c.  10.  p.  279. 

z  De  Justit.  1.  5.  c.  13.  p.  494. 


INTRODUCTION.  2f 

tantius,  the  christian  law  (says  he)  is  entertained  from 
the  rising  of  tlie  sun  to  the  going  down  thereof,  where 
every  sex,  and  age,  and  nation,  and  country  does  with 
one  heart  and  soul  worship  God.  If  from  generals  we 
descend  to  particular  places  and  countries,  "Ireuceus,  who 
entered  upon  the  see  of  Lyons  Ann.  Chr.  179.  af- 
firms, that  though  there  were  different  languages  in  the 
world,  yet  that  the  force  of  tradition,  (or  that  doctrine 
that  had  been  delivered  to  the  church)  was  but  one  and 
the  same  ;  that  there  were  churches  settled  in  Germany, 
Spain,  France,  in  the  east,  in  Kgypt  and  Lybia,  as  well 
as  in  the  middle  of  the  world.  ''Tertullian,  who  probably 
wrote  not  above  twenty  years  after  Irenasus,  gives  us  in 
a  larger  account.  "  T.  heir  sound  (says  he)  ivent  through 
*'  all  the  earthy  and  their  words  to  the  ends  of  the  T.uo?'ld. 
*'  For  in  whom  but  Christ  did  all  nations  believe  ?  Par- 
*'  thians,  Medes,  Elamites,  the  inhabitants  of  Mesopota- 
•'  mia,  Armenia,  Phrygia,  and  Cappadocia,  of  Pontus, 
*'  Asia,  and  Pamphylia,  those  who  dwell  in  Egypt,  Af- 
"  ric,  and  beyond  Gyrene,  strangers  at  Rome,  Jews  at 
*'  Jerusalem,  and  other  nations  ;  as  also  now  the  Getuli, 
*'  and  the  Mauri,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Gauls,  yea  and 
"  those  places  of  Britain,  which  were  unapproachable  by 
"  the  Roman  armies,  are  yet  subdued  to  Christ ;  the 
*'  Sarmata;  also  and  the  Daci,  the  Germans  and  the  Scy- 
"  thians,  together  with  many  undiscovered  countries, 
"  many  islands  and  provinces  unknown  to  us,  which  he 
"  professes  himself  unable  to  reckon  up.  In  all  which 
"  places  (says  he)  the  name  of  Christ  reigns,  as  before 
"  whom  the  gates  of  all  cities  are  set  open,  and  to  whom 
*'  none  are  shut ;  before  whom  gates  of  brass  fly  open, 
"  and  bars  of  iron  are  snapt  asunder."  To  which  'Amo- 
bius  adds  the  Indians,  the  Persians,  the  Ser^e,  and  all 
the  islands  and  provinces,  which  are  visited  by  the  rising 
or  setting  sun,  yea,  and  Rome  itself,  the  empress  of  all. 
9.  From  Tertullian's  account  we  have  a  most  authen- 
tic testimony  how  early  Christianity  stretched  itself  over 
this   other  world,  having  before  his  time  conquered  the 

a  Adv.  Hseres  1.  1.  c.  3.  p.  52. 

b  .^dv.Judxos  c   7,  p.  189.  c  Lib.  2.  p.  S:"!. 


28  INTRODUCTION. 

most  rough  and  inaccessible  parts  of  Britain  to  the  ban- 
ner  of  the  cross,  which  may  probably  refer  to  the  con- 
version of  king  Lucius,  (the  first  Christian  king  that  ever 
was)  a  potent  and  considerable  prince  in  this  island,  who 
embraced  the  Christian  religion  about  the  year  186,  and 
sent  a  solemn  embassy  to  Eleutherius,  bishop  of  Rome, 
for  some  who  might  further  instruct  him  and  his  people 
in  the  faith ;  who  accordingly  despatched  Faganus  and 
Derwianus  hither  upon  that  errand.  Not  that  this  was 
the  first  time  that  the  gospel  made  its  way  through  the 
d>KiXiC(  dTi^dv-rdr  (as  Clemens'^  calls  the  British  ocean,  and  so 
the  ancients  constantly  style  it)  the  unpassable  ocean^  and 
those  xvoi'lds  which  are  beyond  it ;  that  is,  the  Britannic 
islands.  It  had  been  here  many  years  before,  though 
probably  stifled  and  overgrown  with  the  ancient  pagan- 
ism and  idolatry.  St.  Clemens'"  tells  us  of  St.  Paul,  that 
he  preached  both  in  the  east  and  west ;  and  having  in- ' 
structed  the  whole  world  in  righteousness,  made  his  way 
to  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  west :  by  which  he  must 
either  mean  Spain,  or  more  probably  Britain,  and  it  may 
be  both.  Accordingly  Theodoret*"  speaking  of  his  com- 
ing into  Spain,  says,  that  besides  that,  he  brought  great 
advantage  to  the  isles  of  the  sea ;  and  he  reckons  ^the 
Cimbri  and  the  Britains  among  the  nations  which  the 
apostles  (and  he  particularly  mentions  the  tent-maker) 
converted  to  the  Christian  faith.  If  after  all  this,  it  were 
necessary  to  enter  into  a  more  minute  and  particular  dis- 
quisition,  I  might  inquire  not  only  in  what  countries,  but 
m  what  towns  and  cities  in  those  countries  Christianity 
fixed  itself,  in  what  places  episcopal  sees  were  erected, 
and  what  succession  of  bishops  are  mentioned  in  the  re- 
cords of  the  church;  but  that  this  would  not  well  consist 
with  the  designed  shortness  of  this  introduction,  and 
would  be  more  perhaps  than  the  reader's  patience  would 
allow. 

10.  The  shadows  of  the  night  do  not  more  naturally 
vanish  at  the  rising  of  the   Sun,  than  the  darkness  of 

d  Epist.  ad   Corinth,  p.  28.  e  IbicJ.  p.  8. 

f  Comiiitnt.  ill  Psiil.  116, 

g  De  curanil.  Grsecor.  aft'ect.  Serm.  9.  p.  lt?5 


INTRODUCTION.  29 

Pagan  Idolatry  and  superstition  fled  before  the  light  of 
the  Gospel ;  which  the  more  it  prevailed,  the  clearer  it 
discoxered  the  folly  and  impiety  of  their  worship:  their 
solemn  rites  appeared  more  trifling  and  ridiculous,  their 
sacrifices  more  barbarous  and  inhuman,  their  daemons 
were  expelled  by  the  meanest  Christain,  their  oracles  be- 
came mute  and  silent,  and  their  very  priests  began  to  be 
ash  imed  of  their  magic  charms  and  conjurations;  and 
the  more  prudent  and  subtle  heads  among  them,  who 
stood  up  for  the  rites  and  solemnities  of  their  religion, 
were  forced  to  turn  them  into  mystical  and  allegorical 
meanings,  far  enough  either  from  the  apprehension  or  in- 
tention of  the  vulgar.  The  truth  is,  the  devil,  who  for 
so  many  ages  had  usurped  an  empire  and  tyranny  over 
the  souls  of  men,  became  more  sensible  every  day,  that 
his  kingdom  shaked ;  and  therefore  sought,  though  in 
vain,  by  all  ways  to  support  and  prop  it  up.  Indeed 
some  time  before  our  Saviour's  incarnation  the  most  ce- 
lebrated oracle  at  Delphos  had  lost  its  credit  and  reputa- 
tion, as  after  his  appearance  in  the  world  they  sunk  and 
declined  every  day  ;  whereof  their  best  writers  univer- 
sally complain,  that  their  gods  had  forsaken  their  temples, 
and  oracular  recesses,  and  had  left  the  world  in  darkness 
and  obscurity  ;  and  that  their  votaries  did  in  vain  solicit 
their  counsels  and  answers.  Plutarch,  who  lived  under 
Trajan,  wrote  a  particular  tract  (still  extant)  concerning 
the  ceasing  of  oracles,  which  he  endeavours  to  resolve 
partly  into  natural,  partly  into  moral,  partly  into  political 
causes,  though  all  his  philosophy  was  too  short  to  give  a 
just  and  satisfactory  account  of  it.  One  cause  he  assigns 
of  it  is,  the  death  and  departure  of  those  daemons,  that 
heretofore  presided  over  these  oracles.  To  which  pur- 
pose  he  relates  a  memorable  passage,  concerning  a  voice 
that  called  three  times  aloud  to  one  Thamus  an  Egyptian 
ship-master  and  his  company,  as  they  sailed  by  the 
Echinad^  islands,  commanding  him  when  they  came 
near  to  Palodes  to  make  proclamation,  that  the  great  Pan 
was  dead,  which  he  did  ;  and  the  news  was  entertained  not 
with  the  resentment  of  one  or  two,  but  of  manv,  whore- 


30  INTRODUCTION. 

ceived  it  with  great  mourning  and  consternation.''  The 
circumstances  of  this  stor}'  he  there  reports  more  at  large, 
and  adds,  that  the  thing  being  published  at  Rome,  Tha- 
mus  was  sent  for  by  Tiberius,  to  whom  he  gave  an  ac- 
count, and  satisfied  him  in  the  truth  of  it.  Which  circum- 
stance of  time  Eusebius'  observes  corresponds  with  our 
Lord's  conversing  in  the  world,  when  he  began  openly  to 
disposses  dsemon^  of  that  power  and  tyraiiny  which  they 
had  gained  over  mankind.  And  (if  the  calculation  which 
some  make,  hit  right)  it  fell  in  about  the  time  of  our  Sa- 
viour's passion,  who  led  captivity  captive,  spoiled  princi- 
palities, and  powers,  and  made  a  show  of  them  openly,  tri- 
U7nphing  over  them  in  his  cross,  and  by  his  death  destroyed 
him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil. 

11.  However  that  the  silence  of  oracles,  and  the  ener- 
vating the  power  of  daemons  was  the  effect  of  the  chris- 
tian religion  in  the  world,  we  need  no  more  than  the  plain 
confession  of  Porphyry  himself  (truth  will  sometimes  ex- 
tort a  confession  out  of  the  mouth  of  its  greatest  enemy) 
who  says,  that  770W  it  is  no  wonder  if  the  city  for  so  many 
years  has  been  overrun  with  sickness,  -t'Escuiapius  and  the 
rest  of  the  gods  having  withdrawn  their  converse  with 
men:  for  that  since  Jesus  began  to  be  xvorshipped  no 
man  had  received  any  public  help  or  benefit  by  the  gods.^ 
A  great  argument,  as  Eustbiiis  well  urges,  of  our  Sa- 
viour's divine  authoritj^  and  the  truth  of  his  doctrine. 
For  when  (says  he  a  little  before)  huch  numbers  of  ficti- 
tious deities  fled  at  our  Lord's  appearance,  who  would 
not  with  admiration  behold  it  as  an  uncontrolable  demon- 
stration of  his  truly  saving  and  excellent  religion,  where- 
by so  many  churches  and  oratories  through  all  the  world 
both  in  cities  and  villages,  and  even  in  the  deserts  and 
solitudes  of  the  most  barbarous  nations  have  been  erected 

Ij  ITs("(  ru.y  iKhikaiTr.  K^nc»fi.  p.  419. 
i  Prrtpar.  Evang.  1.3.  c.  17.  p   207- 

ai§f  ii/ui.S)V    SIC    dv^i>dris(  TTtpoiS'cv,  ij    aiiTOC  o  Kufi'  )i/xic  toiv   ^iuy.ov»v  mi-poiy'.p®',    ev  t« 

m.b"  iljUteV   QuTKiV^     tSTCV     TTS     AiyCVV    /U-lgTUI^H    <T     TpOrSTTTOV.        '"    NuVI    <fs   ^J-UU  A  parity    ll 

■rco-KTO'V  STpav  x.±Ti!Ayi<^i  tov  ■ttomv  »  voo-Qr',  ' AcrxhUTrii  jusv  i?riJii/jiiA;  Xj  to,]/  eit^MV  ©e- 
«-v  fAHx-iT  »o-»c.  'Ixcs  j-*g  rifxci/uivx  x^tjutkf  t;c  ©siv  J»fAC(ri'j.;  ci^iyMstt  i-vd'HTO.  TstuTct 
ii'<Hv.7i,'  K'i'Tol^  I  Tlci^<^6piQ!^.     Mussb.  ubisiipr.  c.  1.  fi.  179, 


INTRODUCTION.  31 

and  consecrated  to  the  great  Creator,  and  the  only  Sove- 
reign of  the  world  :  when  buch  nnultitudcs  of  books  have 
been  written,  containing  the  most  incomparable  rules  and 
institutions  to  form  mankind  to  a  life  of  the  most  perfect 
virtue  and  religion,  precepts  accommodated  not  to  men 
only,  but  to  women  and  children:  when  he  shall  see  that 
the  oracles  and  divinations  of  the  daemons  are  ceased 
and  gone  ;  and  that  the  divine  and  evangelical  virtue  of 
our  Saviour  no  sooner  visited  mankind,  but  they  began 
to  leave  off  their  wild  and  frantic  ways  of  worship,  and  to 
abhor  those  human  sacrifices  (many  times  of  their  dear- 
est relations)  wherewith  they  had  been  wont  to  propitiate 
and  atone  their  bloody  and  merciless  deemons,  and  into 
which  their  wisest  and  greatest  men  had  been  bewitched 
and  seduced.  1  add  no  more  but  St.  Chrysostom's'  chal- 
lenge, "  Judge  now  with  me,  O  thou  incredulous  Jew, 
*'  and  learn  the  excellency  of  the  truth ;  what  impostor 
*'  ever  gathered  to  himself  so  many  churches  throughout 
"  the  world,  and  propagated  his  u  orship  from  one  end  of 
"  it  to  the  other,  and  subdued  so  many  subjects  to  his 
"  crown,  even  when  thousands  of  impediments  lay  in  the 
"  way  to  hinder  him?  certainly  no  man  :  a  plain  evidence 
"  that  Christ  was  no  impostor,  but  a  Saviour  and  bene- 
"  factor,  and  the  author  of  our  life  and  happiness." 

12,  We  have  seen  Xvith  what  a  mighty  success  Christi- 
anity displayed  its  banners  over  the  world  ;  let  us  next 
consider  what  it  was  that  contributed  to  so  vast  an  in- 
crease and  propagation  of  it.  And  here  not  to  insist  upon 
the  blessing  of  the  Divine  Providence,  which  did  imme- 
diately superintend  its  prosperity  and  welfare,  nor  upon 
the  intrinsic  excellency  of  the  religion  itself,  which  car- 
ried essential  characters  of  divinity  upon  it,  sufficient  to 
recommend  it  to  every  wise  and  good  man,  there  were 
five  things  among  others  that  did  especially  conduce  to 
make  way  for  it  ;  the  miraculous  powers  then  resident  hi 
the  church,  the  great  learning  and  abilities  of  its  cham- 
pions and  defenders,  the  indefatigable  industry  used  in 
propagating  of  it,  the  incomparable  lives  of  its  professors, 

!  Orat.  3.  adv.  Jiidsos,  p  420.  Tom.  ] 


32  INTRODUCTION. 

and  their  patience  and  constancy  under  sufferings.  It 
was  not  the  least  means  that  procured  the  Christian  reli- 
gion a  just  veneration  from  the  world,  the  miraculous  at- 
testations that  were  given  to  it.  I  shall  not  here  concern 
myself  to  show,  that  miracles  truly  and  publicly  wrought 
are  the  highest  external  evidence  that  can  be  given  to  the 
truth  of  that  religion,  which  they  are  brought  to  confirm  ; 
the  force  of  the  argument  is  sufficiently  pleaded  by  the 
Christian  apologists.  That  such  miraculous  powers  were 
then  ordinary  in  tfie  church,  we  have  the  concurrent  tes- 
timonies of  all  the  first  writers  of  it.  Justin  Martyr 
""  tells  the  emperor  and  the  tenate,  that  our  Lord  was 
born  for  the  subversion  of  the  daemons,  which  they  might 
know  from  the  very  things  done  in  their  sight ;  for  that 
very  many  who  had  been  vexed  and  possessed  by  dze- 
mons,  throughout  the  world,  and  in  this  very  city  of 
theirs,  whom  all  their  exorcists  and  conjurers  were  not 
able  to  relieve,  had  been  cured  by  several  Christians, 
through  the  name  of  Jesus  that  was  crucified  under  Pon- 
tius Pilate  ;  and  that  at  this  very  time  they  still  cured 
them,  disarming  and  expelling  the  deemons  out  of  those 
whom  they  had  possessed.  The  same  he  affirms  in  his 
discourse  with  Trypho"  the  Jew,  more  than  once,  that  the 
devils  trt-mbled  and  stood  in  awe  of  the  power  of  Christ ; 
and  to  this  day  being  adjured  by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
crucified  under  Pontius  PiUite  the  procurator  of  Judea, 
they  were  obedient  to  Christians.  Irenreus"  assures  us 
that  in  his  time,  the  Christians,  enabled  by  the  grace  of 
Christ,  raised  the  dead,  ejected  daemons,  and  unclean 
spirits  ;  the  persons  so  dispossessed  coming  over  to  the 
church  :  others  had  visions  and  the  gift  of  prophesy  ; 
others  by  imposition  of  hands  healed  the  sick,  and  re- 
stored them  to  perfect  health.  But  I  am  not  able  (says 
he)  to  reckon  up  the  number  of  those  gifts,  which  the 
church  throughout  the  world  receiving  from  God,  does 
every  day  freely  exercise  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
crucified    under  Pontius    Pilate,  to    the  benefit  of  the 

m   Apol.  1.  p.  45. 

n  Dial.  cum.  Trvpb.  247,  iff  p.  .302. 

Adv.  Hxi-fs.  1.'  2.  c.  56.  i>.  215.  c.  57.  p.  218. 


INTRODUCTION.  C3 

world.  Tertullian  ^  challenges  the  Roman  governors  to 
1  et  any  possessed  person  be  brought  before  their  own 
tribunals,  and  they  should  see,  that  the  spirit  being  com- 
manded to  speak,  by  any  Christian,  should  as  truly  con- 
fess himself  to  be  a  devil,  as  at  other  times  he  falsely 
boasted  himself  to  be  a  god.  And  he  tells  Scapula,'' 
that  they  rejected,  disgraced,  and  expelled  daemons  every 
day,  as  most  could  bear  them  witness.  Origen  *■  bids 
Celsus  take  notice,  that  whatever  he  might  think  of  the 
reports  which  the  gospel  makes  concerning  our  Saviour, 
yet  that  it  was  the  great  and  magnificent  work  of  Jesus, 
by  his  name  to  heal  even  to  this  day,  whom  God  pleased  ; 
that  he  '  himself  had  seen  many,  who  by  having  the  name 
of  God  and  Christ  called  over  them,  had  been  delivered 
from  the  srreatest  evils,  frenzv  and  madness,  and  infi- 
nitc  other  distempers,  which  neither  men  nor  devils  had 
been  able  to  cure.  What  influence  these  miraculous 
effects  had  upon  the  world,  he  lets  us  know  elsewhere. 
*'  The  Apostles  of  our  Lord  (says  *  he)  without  these 
"  miraculous  powers,  would  never  have  been  able  to  have 
"  moved  their  auditors,  nor  persuaded  them  to  desert  the 
"  institutions  of  their  country ;  and  to  embrace  their 
*'  new  doctrine  ;  and  having  once  embraced  it,  to  de- 
**  fend  it  even  to  death,  in  defiance  of  the  greatest  dan- 
•  gers.  Yea,  even  to  this  day  the  footsteps  of  that  Holy 
Spirit,  which  appeared  in  the  shape  of  a  dove,  are 
*'  preserved  among  the  Christians  ;  they  exorcise  gk- 
*'  mons,  perform  many  cures,  and,  according  to  the  will 
"  of  God,  foresee  and  foretell  things  to  come.  At  which, 
"  though  Celsus  and  his  personated  Jew  may  laugh,  yet 
*'  I  affirm  further,  that  many,  even  against  their  inclina. 
"  tions,  have  been  brought  over  to  the  Christian  religion, 
*'  their  former  opposition  of  it  being  suddenly  changed 
•'  into  a  resolute  maintaining  of  it  unto  death,  after  they 
*'  have  had  visions  communicated  to  them  ;  several  of 
*'  which  nature  we  ourselves  have  seen.  And  should 
*'  we  only  reckon  up  those  at  which  we   ourselves  have 

p  Apol.  c.  23.  p.  22.     q  Ad  Scap.  c.  2.  p.  6.     r  Contr.  Cels.  1,  2.  p.  80. 
s  11).  I.  3  p.  124.     t  Lib.  l.p.  34. 

E 


a4.  INTRODUCTION. 

"  been  present  and  beheld,  it  may  be  it  would  only  make 
'*  the  infidels  merry  ;  supposing  that  Me  like  themselves 
"  did  forge  and  feign  them.  But  God  bears  witness  with 
*'  my  conscience,  that  I  do  not  endeavour  by  falsely- 
"  contrived  stories,  but  by  various  powerful  instances, 
*'  to  recommend  the  divine  religion  of  the  holy  Jesus." 
More  testimonies  of  this  kind  I  could  easily  produce 
from  Minucius  Faelix,  Cyprian,  Arnobius,  and  Lac- 
tantius  ;   but  that  these  are  enough  to  my  purpose. 

13.  Another  advantage  that  exceedingly  contributed  to 
the  triumph  of  Christianity,  was  the  singular  learning 
of  many,  who  became  champions  to  defend  it :  For  it 
could  not  but  be  a  mighty  satisfaction,  especially  to  men 
of  ordinary  capacities,  and  mean  employments  (which 
are  the  far  greatest  part  of  mankind)  to  see  persons  of 
the  most  smart  and  subtle  reasonings,  of  the  most  acute 
and  refined  understandings,  and  consequently  not  easily 
capable  of  being  imposed  upon  by  arts  of  sophistry  and 
plausible  stories,  trampling  upon  their  former  sentiments 
and  opinions,  and  not  only  entertaining  the  Christian 
faidi,  but  defending  it  against  its  most  virulent  oppo- 
sers.  It  is  true  indeed  the  gospel  at  its  first  setting  out 
was  left  to  its  own  naked  strength,  and  men  of  the  most 
unpolished  breeding  made  choice  of  to  convey  it  to  the 
world,  that  it  might  not  seem  to  be  an  human  artifice, 
or  die  success  of  it  be  ascribed  to  the  parts  and  powers 
of  man.  But  after  that  for  an  hundred  years  together 
it  had  approved  itself  to  the  world,  and  a  sharper  edge 
was  set  upon  the  malice  and  keenness  of  its  adversaries, 
it  was  but  proper  to  take  in  external  helps  to  assist  it. 
And  herein  the  care  of  the  Divine  Providence  was  very 
remarkable,  that  as  miracles  became  less  common  and 
frequent  in  the  Church,  God  was  pleased  to  raise  up 
even  from  among  the  Gentiles  themselves,  men  of  pro- 
found abilities,  and  excellent  learning,  who  might  t^c 
cui7oi;7riipohCxKK(n;  (as  JuHau "  sald  of  the  Christians  of  his 
time)  beat  them  at  their  own  weapons,  and  wound  them, 
with  arrows  diawn  out  of  their  own  quiver  ;  and  it  was 

11  Theoil.  II.  Eccl.  I  3.  c.  8,  p.  131. 


INTRODUCTION.  35 

high  time  to  do  so  :  for  the  Gentiles  did  not  only  attack 
the  Christians  and  their  religion  by  methods  of  cruel- 
ty, and  by  arts  of  insinuation,  not  only  object  what  wit 
and   subtlety  could  invent,  to  bear  any  shadow  and  pre- 
tence of  reason,  but  load  them  with  the  blackest  crimes, 
which   nothing  but  the    utmost  malice   and    prejudice 
could  ever  suspect  to  be  true.     This  gave  occasion  to 
the  Christian  Apologists,  and  the   first  writers   against 
the   Gentiles,   who   by  their   learned  and  rational   dis- 
courses assoiled  the  Christians  from  the  things  charged 
against  them;  justified  the  reasonableness,   excellenc}^ 
and  divinity  of  their  religion  ;  and  exposed  the  folly  and 
falsehood,  the  brutishness  and  impiety,  the  absurd  and 
trifling  rites  of  the  Pagan  worship  ;    by  which   means 
prejudices  were  removed,  and  thousands  brought  o^er 
to  the  faith.     In  this  way  they  that  rendered  themselves 
most  renowned,  and  did  greatest  service  to  the  Chris- 
tian cause,  were  especially  these :   Quadratus  bishop  of 
Athens,  and  Aristides,  formerly  a  famous  philosopher 
of  that  city,  a  man  wise  and  eloquent,  dedicated  each 
an  apologetic   to  the  emperor  Adrian  :  Justin  the  mar- 
tyr,  besides   several  tracts  against  the  Gentiles,  v\Tote 
two   apologies ;  the  first  presented  to  Antoninus  Pius, 
the  second  to  M.  Aurelius,  and  the  senate  :  about  which 
time  also  Athenagoras  presented  his  apology  to  M.  Au- 
relius, and  Aurelius   Commodus :    not  to  mention  his 
excellent  discourse  concerning   the   resurrection.     To 
the  same  M.  Aurelius,  Melito  bishop  of  Sardis  exhibi- 
ted his  apologetic  oration  for  the  Christians.    Under  this 
emperor  also  flourished  Apollinaris,  bishop  of  Hierapo- 
lis  in  Asia,   and  dedicated  to  him  an  incomparable  dis- 
course in  defence  of  the  Christian  faith  ;   besides  five 
books  which  he  WTOte  against  the  Gentiles,  and  two 
concerning  the   truth.      Not  long   after  Theophilus  bi- 
shop of  Antioch  composed  his  three  excellent  books  for 
the  conviction  of  Autolycus  :  and  Miltiades  presented 
an  apology  (probably)  to  the  emperor  Commodus.    Ta- 
tian,  the  Syrian,  scholar  to  Justin  martyr,  a  man  learned 
and  eloquent,  among  other  things  wrote  a  book  against 
the  Gentiles,  which  sufficiently  evidences  his  great  abili- 


36  INTRODUCTION. 

ties.  TertiilHan,  a  man  of  admirable  learning,  and  the 
first  of  the  Latins  that  appeared  in  this  cause,  under  the 
reign  of  Severus,  published  his  apologetic,  directed  to 
the  magistrates  of  the  Roman  empire  ;  besides  his 
books,  Ad  Nationes,  De  Idololatria,  Ad  Scapulam,  and 
many  more.  After  him  succeeded  Origen,  whose  eight 
books  against  Celus  did  not  greater  service  to  the  Chris- 
tian cause,  than  they  did  honour  to  himself.  Minucius 
Faelix,  an  eminent  advocate  at  Rome,  wrote  a  short, 
but  most  elegant  dialogue  between  Octavius  and  Caecil- 
ius,  which  (as  Lactantius''  long  since  observed)  shows, 
how  fit  and  able  an  advocate  he  would  have  been  to  as- 
sert the  truth,  had  he  wholly  applied  himself  to  it. 
About  the  time  of  Gallus  and  Volusian,  Cyprian  ad- 
dressed himself  in  a  discourse  to  Demetrian,  the  Procon- 
sul of  Africa,  in  behalf  of  the  Christians  and  their  religion, 
and  published  his  tract  De  Idolorum  Vanitate,  which 
is  nothing  but  an  epitome  of  Minucius's  dialogue. 
To\vards  the  close  of  that  age  under  Diociesian,  Arno- 
bius  taught  rhetoric  with  great  applause  at  Sicca  in 
Africa  ;  and  being  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
could  hardly  make  the  Christians  at  first  believe  that  he 
was  real.  In  evidence,  therefore,  of  his  sincerity,  he 
wrote  seven  books  against  the  Gentiles,  w^herein  he 
smartly  and  rationally  pleads  the  Christian  cause  :  as  not 
long  after  his  scholar  Lactantius,  who  under  Diociesian 
professed  rhetoric  at  Nicomedia,  set  himself  to  the  com- 
posing several  discourses  in  defence  of  the  Christian, 
and  subversion  of  the  Gentile  religion.  A  man  witty 
and  eloquent,  but  more  happy  in  attacking  his  adversa- 
ries, than  in  establishing  the  principles  of  his  own  religion, 
many  whereof  he  seems  not  very  distinctly  to  have  under- 
stood. To  all  these  I  may  add  Apollonius,  a  man  ver- 
sed in  all  kind  of  leaining  and  philosophy ;  and  (if  St. 
Hierom  say  right)  a  senator  of  Rome,  who  in  a  set  ora- 
tion, with  so  brave  and  generous  a  confidence,  eloquent- 
ly pleaded  his  own,  and  the  cause  of  Christianity  before 

X  De  Instit.  1.  5.  c.  l.p.  459. 


INTRODUCTION.  37 

the  senate  itself;  for  which  he  suffered  as  a  martyr  in 
the  reign  of  Commodus. 

14.  And  as  they  thus  defended  Christianity  on  the 
one  hand  from  the  open  assaults  and  calumnies  of  the 
Gentiles,  so  were  they  no  less  cai'cful  on  the  other  to 
clear  it  from  the  errors  and  heresies,  wherewith  men  of 
perverse  and  evil  minds  sought  to  corrupt  and  poison  it. 
And  the  chief  of  those  that  engaged  in  this  way  were 
these :  Agrippa  Castor,  a  man  of  great  learning,  in  the 
time  of  Adrian,  wrote  an  accurate  refutation  of  Basilides 
and  his  principles  in  twenty-four  books.  Theophilus  of 
Antioch  against  Hermogenes  and  Marcion  ;  Apollinaris, 
Philip,  Bishop  of  Gortyna  in  Crete,  Musanus,  Modes- 
tus,  Rhodon,  Tatian's  scholar,  Miltiades,  Apollonius, 
Serapion,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  and  hundreds  more,  who 
engaged  against  the  Marcionites,  Montanists,  and  other 
heretics  of  those  times.  But  the  principal  of  all  was 
Irenasus,  who  took  to  task  the  most  noted  heresies  of 
those  ages,  and  with  incomparable  industry  and  quick- 
ness  of  reasoning  unravelled  their  principles,  exposed 
their  practices,  refuted  their  errors,  whereby  (as  he  fre- 
quently intimates)  many  were  reduced  and  recovered 
to  the  church.  I  might  also  mention  several  others, 
who,  though  not  known  to  have  particularly  adventured 
in  either  of  these  ways,  are  yet  renowned  for  their  ex- 
cellent skill  in  all  arts  and  sciences,  whereby  they  be- 
came eminently  useful  to  the  church.  Such  (besides 
those  whereof  an  account  is  given  in  the  following  work) 
were  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Corinth,  Bardesanes,  the  Sy- 
rian, whose  learning  and  eloquence  were  above  the  com- 
mon standard,  though  he  also  wrote  against  almost  all 
the  heresies  of  the  age  he  lived  in.  Ammonius  the  cele- 
brated philosopher  of  Alexandria,  Julius  Africanus,  a 
man  peculiarly  eminent  for  history  and  chronology ; 
Dorotheus,  Presbyter  of  Antioch,  famous  for  his  skill  in 
Hebrew,  as  well  as  other  parts  of  learning ,  Anatolius 
the  Alexandrian,  whom  Eusebius  magnifies  so  much  as 
the  most  learned  man,  and  acute  philosopher  of  his  age, 
exquisitely  skilled  in  arithemetic,  geometry,  astronomy, 
logic,  physic,  rhetoric,  and  indeed  what  not  ?  Pierius, 


38  INTRODUCTION. 

prcsb}'ter  of  Alexandria,  an  eloquent  preacher,  and  so 
great  a  scholar,  that  he  was  commonly  styled  Origen  ju- 
nior. But  this  is  a  field  too  large  to  proceed  any  further 
in,  and  therefore  I  stop  here.  By  all  which  it  is  evident, 
what  St.  Hierom-'  remarks,  how  little  reason  Celsus,  Por- 
phyry, and  Julian  had  to  clamour  against  the  Christians, 
as  a  rude  and  illiterate  generation,  \\'ho  had  no  learning, 
no  eloquence,  or  philosophy  to  recommend  them. 

15.  A  third  ad-vantage  that  helped  on  the  progress  of 
Christianity,  was  the  indefatigable  Zealand  industry  used 
in  the  propagation  of  it.  No  stone  was  left  unturned,  no 
method  unattemptedjwhereby  they  might  reclaim  men  from 
error,  and  bring  them  over  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
truth.  Hence  in  an  ancient  inscription''  said  to  be  set  up 
in  Spain,  to  the  honour  of  Nero,  they  are  described  un- 
der this  character,  Qui  Nov  am  Generi  Hum.  Superstition. 
Inculcab.  Those  ^^ho  inculcated  and  obtruded  a  new 
superstition  upon  mankind.  Indeed  they  ■^^•ere  infinitely 
zealous  to  gain  proselytes  to  the  best  religion  in  the 
world.  They  preached  it  boldly,  and  prajed  heartily  for 
the  conversion  and  reformation  of  mankind,  solicited  their 
neighbours  that  were  yet  strangers  to  the  faith,  instructed 
and  informed  new  converts,  and  built  them  up  on  the  most 
holy  faith.  Those  that  were  of  greater  parts  and  eminency 
erected  and  instituted  schools,  where  they  publicly  tajrght 
those  that  resorted  to  them,  grounding  them  in  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  faith,  and  antidoting  them  both  against 
heathens  on  the  one  side,  and  heretics  on  the  other. 
Among  us  (says  Taiian'')not  only  the  rich  and  the  wealthy 
learn  our  philosophy,  but  the  poor  are  freely  disciplined 
and  instructed :  we  admit  all  that  are  willing  to  learn, 
whether  they  be  old  or  young.  And  \\\vd.\.  the  success 
was,  he  tells  '^  us  a  little  after,  that  all  their  virgins  were 


y  Discant  erpo  Cehiis,  Porphyrins,  Julianas,  rabidi  arlversus  Cliristum 
canes,  discant  coram  stctatores,  qui  putaiit  Ecclesiam,  nuUus  Phiiosophos  & 
eloquentes,  nuilos  habuisse  Ductores,  quanti  &  quales  viri  earn  fuuflaverint,  ex- 
truxcrint.  &.  (irnaverint.  &  de-iinaut  ficlcni  nostrum  rusticx  tantiini  simplicit:itis 
a'-guerc,  si!.in:ique  potius  iinperitiam  agnoscunt,  St.  Hitron.  praf.  ad  Catalog, 
de  script.  Eccia;. 

7  Ap   Gruter-  Inscript.  p.  233  N.  IX.  a  Orat.  contr.  Grxc.  p.  167. 

b  i#id  p  ica. 


INTRODUCTION.  39 

sober  and  modest,  and  were  wont  to  discourse  concern- 
ing  divine  things,  even  while  they  were  sitting  at  their 
distafts.  Nor  did  they  content  themselves  only  to  do 
thus  at  home,  many  of  them  freely  exposing  themselves 
to  all  manner  of  hazards  and  hardships.  No  pains  were 
thought  great,  no  dangers  considerable,  no  difficulties 
insuperable,  that  they  might  enlarge  the  bounds  of  the 
gospel,  travelling  into  the  most  barbarous  nations,  and 
to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  world.  "  The  divine  and 
"  admirable  disciples  of  the  Apostles  (says  ''  Eusebius) 
*'  built  up  the  superstructures  of  those  churches,  thefoun- 
"  dations  whereof,  the  Apostles  had  laid  in  all  places 
"  where  they  came :  they  every  where  promoted  the 
"  publication  of  the  gospel,  sowing  the  seeds  of  that 
^^  heavenly  doctrine  throughout  the  whole  world.  For 
"  their  minds  being  inflamed  with  the  love  of  a  more 
'*  divine  philosophy,  according  to  our  Lord's  counsel, 
"  they  distributed  their  estates  to  the  poor;  and  leaving 
"  their  own  countries,  took  upon  them  the  office  of  eva7i- 
"  geiists,  preaching  Christ,  and  delivering  the  evange- 
*'  Heal  writings  to  those  who  had  not  yet  so  much  as 
"  heard  of  the  Christian  faith.  And  no  sooner  had  they 
'  founded  the  faith  in  any  foreign  countries,  and  or- 
*'  dained  guides  and  pastors,  to  whom  they  committed 
*'  the  care  of  those  new  plantations,  but  they  presently 
*'  betook  themselves  to  other  nations,  ratifying  their  doc- 
"  trine  with  the  miraculous  powers  of  that  divine  Spirit 
"  that  attended  them  ;  so  that  as  soon  as  ever  they  began 
"  to  preach,  the  people  universally  flocked  to  them,  and 
*'  cheerfully  and  heartily  embraced  the  worship  of  the 
"true  God,  the  great  Creator  of  the  world."  In  the 
number  of  these  evangelical  missionaries,  that  were  of 
the  first  apostolical  succesion,  were  Silas,  Sylvanus, 
Crescens,  Andronieus,  Trophimus,  Marcus,  Aristar- 
chus,  &c.  as  afterwards  Pantcenus,  who  went  into  In- 
dia, Pothinus  and  Irenasus,  from  Smyrna  into  France, 
each  successively  becoming  bishop  of  Lvons,  and  in- 
finite others  mentioned  in  the  histories  and  rnartyrologies 

c  H.  Eccles.  I.  3.  c.  ^17.  p.  lOP. 


40  INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  church,  who  counted  not  their  lives  to  he  dear 
unto  them^  so  that  they  might  finish  their  course  rvith 
joy,  and  make  known  the  mystery  of  the  gospel  to  the 
ends  of  the  eaith." 

16.  Fourthly,  Christianity  recommended  itself  to  the 
world  by  the  admirable  lives  of  its  professors,  which 
were  so  truly  consonant  to  all  the  laws  of  virtue  and 
goodness,  as  could  not  but  reconcile  the  wiser  and  more 
unprejudiced  part  of  the  Gentile  world  to  a  better  opi- 
nion of  it,  and  vindicate  it  from  those  absurd  and  sense- 
less cavils  that  were  made  against  it.  For  when  they 
saw  Christians  every  where  so  seriously  devout  and  pi- 
ous, so  incomparably  chaste  and  sober,  of  such  humble 
and  mortified  tempers,  so  strictly  just  and  righteous,  so 
kind  and  charitable,  not  to  themselves  only,  but  to  all 
mankind,  they  concluded  there  must  be  something  more 
than  human  in  it :  as,  indeed,  no  argument  is  so  con- 
victive,  as  a  demonstration  from  experience.  Their  sin- 
gular piety,  and  the  discipline  of  their  manners  weighed 
down  all  the  distidvantages  they  were  under.  The  di- 
vine and  most  admirable  Apostles  of  Christ  (says  Fuse- 
bins'^ )  how  rude  soever  they  were  in  speech,  were  yet 

•rov  yS/ov  ttKfmt  x.iKd2ra.giJ.hoi,    5  a'gST"  Tricif  t-m  ■ifV)(jt^  x.iKCff-fXK/uiyol,  OI  tllC   mOSt 

pure  and  holy  lives,  and  had  their  minds  adorned  with 
all  sorts  of  virtue.  And  such  generally  were  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  succeeding  ages  :  they  did  not  entert'ain  the 
world  with  a  parcel  of  good  words  and  a  plausible  story, 
but  showed  their  faith  by  their  works,  and  proved  the  di- 
vinity of  their  religion  by  the  heavenliness  of  their  lives. 
We  (says  the  Christian  in  Minucius  Faslix*")  despise 
the  pride  and  superciliousness  of  philosophers,  whom  we 
know  to  be  debauched  persons  and  always  eloquent  a- 
gainst  those  vices  of  which  themselves  are  most  guilty. 
For  we  measure  not  wisdom  by  men's  garbs  and  habits, 
but  by  their  mind  and  manners  ;  nor  do  we  speak  great 
things  so  much  as  live  them,  glorying  that  we  have  attained 
what  they  earnestly  sought,  but  could  never  find.  Chris- 
tians were  then  the  only  persons  that  really  were  what 

d  ubi.  supr.  c.  24.  p.  94.  e  M.  Fal,  Dial.  non.  longe  a  fin.  p.  31. 


INTRODUCTION.  41 

they  pretended  to,  men  heartily  reformed  from  vice  to 
virtue  :  "  Being  persuaded  (as  Justin  Martyr  tells  ^  the 
"  emperors)  by  the  word,  we  have  renounced  the  das- 
"  mons,  and  through  the  Son,  worhip  the  only  and  un- 
"  begotten  Deity  :  and  we,  who  heretofore  took  plea- 
"  sure  in  adulteries,  do  now  embrace  the  strictest  chas- 
**  tity  ;  and  who  were  addicted  to  magic  arts,  have  de- 
"  voted  ourselves  to  the  benign  and  immortal  God  :  we 
*'  who  valued  estate  and  riches  before  all  things  in  the 
"  world,  do  now  cast  what  we  have  in  common,  distri- 
*'  buting  to  every  one  according  to  his  need  :  we  who  by 
"  hatred  and  slaughters  mutually  raged  against  each 
**  other,  and  refused  to  sit  at  the  same  fire  with  those 
"  who  w^ere  not  of  our  own  tribe,  since  Christ's  appear- 
"  ing  in  the  world,  familiarly  converse  together,  pray 
*'  for  our  enemies,  and  for  the  conversion  of  those  that 
"  unjustlv  hate  us,  endeavouring  to  persuade  them  to 
"  live  according  to  the  excellent  precepts  of  Christ,  that 
"  so  they  may  have  just  ground  to  hope  for  the  same  re- 
*'  wards  with  us  from  the  great  Judge  of  the  world."  In- 
deed, strange  was  the  efficacy  of  the  Christian  doc- 
trine over  the  minds  of  men,  which  the  Christian  apo- 
logists at  every  turn  plead  as  an  uncontrollable  evidence 
of  their  religion'',  that  it  made  all  sorts  of  persons  that 
complied  with  it,  chaste  and  temperate,  quiet  and  peaee- 
able,  meek  and  modest,  and  afraid  of  the  least  appear- 
ance and  colour  of  what  was  evil**.  When  the  Heathens 
derided  them  for  the  mean  and  unpompous  solemnities 
of  their  religion,  they  universally  declared,  that  God 
respected  no  man  for  any  external  excellencies  or  ad- 
vantages, it  was  the  pure  and  the  holy  soul  he  delighted 

f  Apol.  II.  p.  61. 

g  Tertul.  AdoI.  c.  3.  p.  4.  ad  Nation,  c.  1.  p.  41.  Orig.  contr.  Cels.  1. 1.  p.  9. 
15,  21,36,  50,53  lib.  2.  p.  61.  85,  88,  110.  lib.  3.  p.  128,  147,  152.  157-  lib.  4. 
p.  167.  lib.  6.  p.  306.  lib.  7.  p.  364.  lib.  8.  p.  409.  St  alibi  pas=im.  Lactam,  lib. 
3.  c.  26.  p.  328.  lib.  4.  c.  3.  p.  351. 

h  J. Mart.  Orat  ad  Graec.p.  40.  Athenag-.  Leg-at.  p.l3.  Clem.  Alex. Strom .1.7. 
p.  706,  709,  714, 719,  728.  Minuc.  "F<el.  p.  26.  30.  Amob.  adv.  Gent.  1.  7.  p.  104. 
Orig:.  contr.  Cels.  1.  8.  p.  385.  389,  392.  Lactant.  1.  1.  c.  20.  p.  103.  1.  6.  c.  1- 
]>.  540.  c.  24.  p.    636.  Epiioni.  c.  2.  p,  7.16. 

F 


42  INTRODUCTION. 

in  ;  that  he  stood  in  no  need  of  blood  or  smoke,  perfumes 
and  incense ;  that  the  greatest  and  best  sacrifice  was  to 
ofier  up  a  mind  truly  devoted  to  him  :  that  meekness 
and  kindness,  an  humble  heart,  and  an  innocent  life, 
was  the  sacrifice  with  which  God  was  well  pleased,  and 
infinitely  beyond  all  holocausts  and  oblations ;  that  a 
pious  and  devout  mind  was  the  fittest  temple  for  God  to 
dwell  in,  and  that  to  do  one's  duty,  to  abstain  from  sin, 
to  be  intent  upon  the  oflices  and  ministrations  of  prayer 
and  praise,  is  the  truest  festival ;  yea,  that  the  whole  life 
of  a  good  man  is  nothing  else  but  a  holy  and  festival  so- 
lemnity. This  was  the  religion  of  Christians  then,  and 
it  rendered  their  profession  amiable  and  venerable  to  the 
world  ;  and  forced  many  times  its  most  violent  opposers 
to  fall  down,  and  say  that  God  was  in  them  of  a  truth. 
But  the  less  of  this  argument  is  said  here,  a  full  account 
having  been  given  of  it  in  a  work  peculiar  to  this  subject. 
17.  Fifthly,  the  disciples  of  this  holy  and  excellent 
religion  gained  innumerable  proselytes  to  their  party,  by 
their  patience  and  constancy  under  sufterings.  They 
were  immutably  resolved  to  maintain  their  station,  not- 
withstanding all  the  attempts  made  to  beat  them  from 
it.  They  entertained  the  fiercest  threatenings  with  an 
unshaken  mind,  and  fearlessly  beheld  the  racks  and  en- 
gines prepared  for  them  ;  they  laughed  at  torments,  and 
courted  flames,  and  went  out  to  meet  death  in  its  blackest 
dress  :  they  died  rejoicing,  and  triumphed  in  the  midst 
of  the  greatest  tortures  ;  which  happening  for  some  ages 
almost  every  day,  could  not  but  convince  their  enemies 
that  they  were  in  good  earnest,  that  they  heartily  believed 
their  religion  to  be  true,  and  that  there  must  be  a  divine 
and  supernatural  power  going  along  with  it,  that  could 
support  them  under  it;  which  Justin  Martyr  confesses 
was  one  main  inducement  of  his  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity. \\'hat  particular  methods  of  cruelty  were  used 
towards  the  primitive  Christians,  and  with  how  brave 
dnd  generous  a  patience,  with  what  evenness  and  tran- 
quillity of  mind  they  bore  up  under  the  heaviest  and 
acutest  torments,  we  have  sufiiciently  declared  in  another 
place :  and  therefore  shall  here  only  take  a  short  survey 


INTRODUCTION.  43 

of  those  ten  famous  persecutions,'  that  so  eminently  ex- 
ercised  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  primitive  saints,  and 
then  collect  the  force  of  the  argument  resulting  from  it. 
And  this  the  rather,  because  it  will  present  us  with  the 
best  prospect  of  the  state  of  the  church  in  those  early 
ages  of  it.  As  to  the  particular  dates  and  periods  of 
some  of  these  persecutions,  different  accounts  are  as- 
signed by  Sulpitius  Severus,  Eusebius,  Orosius,  Hierom, 
and  others  ;  we  shall  follow  that  which  shall  appear  to 
be  most  likely  and  probable. 

18.  The  first  that  raised  a  general  persecution  against 
the  Christians,  was  Nero,  as  Tertullian*'  tells  the  Gen- 
tiles ;  and  for  the  truth  of  it,  refers  them  to  their  own 
public  archieves  and  records.  A  prince  of  that  wild  and 
ungovernable  temper,  of  such  brutish  and  extravagant 
manners,  that  their  own  writers  scruple  not  to  style  him, 
a  beast  in  human  shape,  and  the  very  monster  of  man- 
kind. He  was  guilty  of  the  most  unbounded  pride  and 
ambition,  drunkenness,  luxury,  and  all  manner  of  debau- 
chery, sodomy  and  incest,  which  he  attempted  to  com- 
mit with  his  own  mother.  But  cruelty  seemed  to  predo- 
minate among  his  other  vices;  besides  infinite  others  he 
despatched  the  greatest  part  of  the  senate,  put  to  death 
his  tutor  Seneca  and  his  wife,  Lucan  the  poet ;  nay,  vio- 
lated all  the  laws  of  nature,  in  falling  upon  his  own  near 
relations :  he  was  privy  to,  if  not  guilty  of  the  death  of 
his  father  Claudius ;  killed  his  two  wives,  Octavia  and 
Poppgea,  and  murdered  Antonia,  because  refusing  to  suc- 
ceed in  their  bed  ;  he  poisoned  his  brother  Britannicus  : 
and  to  complete  all  his  villanies,  fell  next  upon  his 
own  mother  Agrippina,  whom  he  hated  for  her  free  re- 
proving his  looseness  and  extravagancy  ;  and  having  first 
spoiled  her  of  all  public  honours,  and  caused  her  to  be 
openly  disgraced  and  derided,  then  thrice  attempted  her 
life  by  poison,  he  at  last  sent  an  assassin  to  stab  her.  And 
the  tradition  then  went,  that  not  content  to  do  this,  he 
himself  came  and  beheld  her  naked  corps,  contemplating 
and  handling  its  several  parts ;  commending  some  and 


i  Prim.  Christ,  part  2.  ch.  T.  k  Apol.  c.  5.  p.  6. 


44  INTRODUCTION. 

dispraising  others.  And  if  thus  barbarous  and  inhuman 
towards  his  own  kindred  and  subjects,  we  cannot  think 
he  was  over  favourable  to  Christians  ;  wanting  this  title 
(says  Eusebius')  to  be  added  to  all  the  rest,  to  be  styled 
the  first  epiperor  that  became  an  enemy  to  the  Christian 
religion,  publishing  laws  and  edicts  for  the  suppressing 
of  it ;  and  prosecuting  those  that  professed  it,  with  the 
utmost  rigour  in  everyplace  ;  and  that  upon  this  occasion. 
Among  infinite  other  instances  of  this  madness  and  folly, 
he  took  up  a  resolution  to  burn  Rome,  either  as  being  of- 
fended with  the  narrowness  of  the  streets,  and  the  defor- 
mity of  the  buildings,  or  ambitious  to  become  the  author 
of  a  more  stately  and  magnificent  city,  and  to  call  it  after 
his  own  name.  But  however  it  was,  he  caused  it  to  be 
set  on  fire,  about  the  19th  of  July,  ann.  Christ.  64.  The 
conquering  flames  quickly  prevailed  over  that  city,  that 
had  so  often  triumphed  over  the  rest  of  the  world,  in  six 
or  seven  days  spoiling  and  reducing  the  far  greatest  part 
of  it  (ten  regions  of  fourteen)  into  ashes ;  laying  waste 
houses  and  temples,  and  all  the  venerable  antiquities  and 
monuments  of  that  place,  which  had  been  preserved  with 
so  much  care  and  reverence  for  many  ages ;  himself  in 
the  mean  while  from  Mecccnas's  tower  beholding  the 
sad  spectacle  with  pleasure  and  delight,  and  in  the  habit 
of  a  player,  singing  the  destruction  of  Troy.  And  when 
the  people  would  but  have  seaixhed  the  ruins  of  their  own 
houses,  he  forbade  them,  not  suffering  them  to  reap  what 
the  mercy  of  the  flames  had  spared.  This  act  (as  well  it 
might)  expos'd  him  to  all  the  hatred  and  detestation, 
wherewith  an  injured  and  abused  people  could  resent  it, 
which  he  endeavoured  to  remove  by  large  promises,  and 
^reat  rewards,  by  consulting  the  Sibylline  books,  and  by 
public  supplications  and  sacrifices  to  the  gods.  Notwith- 
standing all  which,  Tacitus"'  tells  us,  the  people  still  be- 
lieved him  to  be  the  author  of  the  mischief.  This  not 
succeeding,  he  sought  to  clear  himself  by  deriving  the 
odium  upon  the  Christians,  whom  he  knew  to  be  suffi= 
ciently  hateful  to  the  people,  charging  them  to  have  been 

I  H.  Eccles.  1.  2.  c.  25,  p  67.         m  Annal  1. 15.  c.  44.  p.  319. 


INTRODUCTION.  45i 

the  incendiaries,  and  proceeding  against  them  with  the 
most  exquisite  torments.  Having  apprehended  some, 
whom  they  either  forced  or  persuaded  to  confess  them- 
selves guilty,  by  their  means  great  numbers  of  others 
were  betrayed ;  whom  Tacitus  confesses,  that  not  the 
burning  of  the  city,  but  the  common  hatred  made  crimi- 
nal. They  were  treated  with  all  the  instances  of  scorn 
and  cruelty  ;  some  of  them  were  wrapt  up  in  the  skins  of 
wild  beasts,  and  worried  by  dogs ;  others  crucified ; 
others  burnt  alive,  being  clad  in  paper  coats,  dipt  in 
pitch,  wax,  and  such  combustible  matter;  that  when 
day  light  failed,  they  might  serve  for  torches  in  the  night. 
These  spectacles  Nero  exhibited  in  his  ow^n  gardens, 
which  yet  the  people  entertained  with  more  pity  than 
pleasure  :  knowing  they  were  done,  not  for  the  public  be- 
nefit, but  merely  to  gratify  his  own  private  rage  and  ma- 
lice. Little  better  usage  did  the  Christians  meet  with  in 
other  parts  of  the  empire,  as  appears  from  the  inscription" 
found  at  Clunie  in  Spain,  dedicated  to  Nero  in  memory 
of  his  having  cleared  the  province  of  those  that  had  intro- 
duced a  new  superstition  amongst  mankind.  Under 
this  persecution  suffered  Tecla,  Torques,  Torquatus, 
Marcellus,  and  several  others  mentioned  in  the  ancient 
Martyrologies,  especially  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul ; 
the  one  upon  the  cross,  the  other  by  the  sword. 

19.  The  troublesome  vicissitudes  and  revolutions  of 
aifairs  that  happened  under  the  succeeding  emperors, 
Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius,  and  the  mild  and  merciful 
disposition  of  Vespasian  and  Titus,  gave  some  rest  to 
the  Christians,  till  Domitian  succeeding,  began  a  se- 
cond  Persecution.  A  man  of  a  temper  vastly  different 
from  that  of  his  father,  and  his  brother ;  for  though  at 
first  he  put  on  a  plausible  carriage,  yet  he  soon  left  off 
the  vizor,  and  appeared  like  himself ;  lazy  and  inactive, 
ill-natured  and  suspicious,  griping  and  covetous,  proud 
and  insolent ;  yea,  so  vainly  ambitious  as  to  affect  di< 
vinity,  in  all  public  edicts  assuming  to  himself,  and  in 
all  petitions  and  addresses  requiring  from  others,  the  titles 

n  Ap,  Gruter.  loc.  siipr,  chat, 


45  INTRODUCTION. 

of  Lord  and  God.  He  never  truly  loved  any  man  ;  and 
when  he  most  pretended  it,  it  was  a  sure  sign  of  that 
man's  ruin.  His  cruelty  he  exercised  first  upon  flies, 
thousands  whereof  he  despatched  every  day ;  next  upon 
men,  and  those  of  all  ranks  and  states  :  putting  to  death 
the  most  illustrious  senators,  and  persons  of  the  greatest 
honour  and  nobility  upon  the  most  trifling  pretences ; 
and  many  times  for  no  cause  at  all.  In  the  fierceness 
and  brutality  of  his  temper  he  equalled  Nero,  Portio 
Neronis  de  crudelitate,  as  Tertullian"  styles  him ;  nay, 
in  this  exceeded  him,  that  Nero  was  content  to  com- 
mand execution  to  be  done  at  a  distance,  while  i  omi- 
tian  took  pleasure  in  beholding  his  cruelties  exercised 
before  his  eyes  :  an  argument  of  a  temper  deeper  died 
in  blood.  But  the  Christians,  alas,  bore  the  heaviest  load 
of  rage  and  malice,  whom  he  every  where  persecuted 
cither  by  death  or  banishment.  Under  him  St.  John  the 
evangelist  was  sent  for  to  Rome,  and  by  his  command 
thrown  into  a  cauldron  of  boiling  oil :  in  the  midst  where- 
of, when  the  divine  Providence  had  miraculously  preserv- 
ed him,  he  immediately  banished  him  into  Patmos.  He  put 
to  death  his  cousin-german  Fl.  Clemens  (at  that  time  con- 
sul) for  being  a  Christian,  and  banished  his  wife  Fl.  Do- 
mitilla  (his  own  kinswoman  also)  upon  the  same  account 
into  the  island  Pandataria.  At  length  his  brutish  and 
bloody  practices  rendered  him  intolerable  to  his  own 
friends  and  servants,  who  conspired  against  him  (his 
own  wife  Domitia  being  of  the  confedeiacy)  and  slew 
him.  His  successor  Nerva  abrogated  his  acts,  and  re- 
called those  whom  he  had  proscribed  and  banished ; 
among  whom  St.  John  taking  the  benefit  of  that  act  of 
revocation,  quitted  P;itmos  and  returned  to  Ephesus. 

20  The  third  Persecution  commenced  under  Trajan, 
whom  Nerva  had  adopted  to  be  his  successor.  A  prince 
he  was  of  excellent  and  incomparable  virtues,  whose 
justice  and  impartiality,  gentleness  and  modesty,  muni- 
ficence and  liberality,  kindness  and  aflfability  rendered 
him  infinitely  dear   and  acceptable   to  the  people ;  the 

o  Loc  super,  citat. 


INTRODUCTION.  47 

extravagancies  of  his  predecessors  not  a  little  contribu- 
ting  to    sweeten    his   government   to    them.     He   was 
mild    and    dispassionate,   familiar    and   courteous;  he 
showed  a  great  reverence  to  the  senate,  by  whose  advice 
he  usually  acted  ;  and  they  to  requite  him,  gave  him  the 
title  of  Optimus,  as  whom  they  judged  the   best  of  all 
their  princes.     He  conversed  freely  and   innocently  with 
all  men,  being  desirous  rather  to  be  beloved,  than  either 
feared  or  honoured  by  the  people.     The    glory  of  all 
which  is  exceedingly  stained  in  the  records  of  the  church 
by  his  severe   proceedings  against  the  Christians.     He 
looked  upon  the  religion  of  the  empire  as  daily  under- 
mined by  this  new  way  of  worship,  that  the  numbers  of 
Christians  grew  formidable,  and  might  possibly  endan- 
ger the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  Roman  state  ;  and  that 
there  was  no  better  way  to  secure  to  himself  the  favour 
of  the  gods,  especially  in  his  wars,  than  to  vindicate  their 
cause  against  the  Christians.  Accordingly,  therefore,  he 
issued  out  orders  to  proceed  against  them,  as  i/legol  so- 
cieties, erected  and  acting  contrary  to  the  laws  ;  in  which 
number  all  colleges  and  corporations  were  accounted, 
that  were  not^  settled  either  by  the  emperor's  constitu- 
tion, or  the  decree  of  the  senate  ;  and  the  persons'^  fre- 
quenting them  adjudged  guilty  of  high  treason.     Indeed 
the  emperors  (as  we  have  elsewhere  observed)  were  in- 
finitely  suspicious   of  such  meetings,    as  which  might 
easily  conspire  into  faction  and  treason  :  and  therefore 
when  Pliny'  interceded  with  Trajan  in  behalf  of  the  cit}-^ 
of  Nicomedia,  that  being  so  subject  to  fires,  he  would 
constitute  a  corporation  of  smiths,  though  but   a   small 
number,  which  might  be  easily  kept  in  order,  and  which 
he  promised  to  keep  a  particular  eye  upon  :  the  empe- 
ror answered,  by  no  means  :   for  we  ought  to  remember 
(says  he)  that  that  province  and  especially  those  cities  are 
greatly  disturbed  by  such  kinds  of  factions  ;  and  whatever 
the  title  or  occasion  be,  if  they  meet  together,  they  will 
be  HetericC,  though  less  numerous  than  the  rest.     That 

p  L.  1.  if  3.  fi".  de  CoUeg'.  ilf  corp.  Lib.  47.  lit.  22. 
<[  Ulp.i'm  (!e  off.  procons.  1.  6,  ib.  I,  2. 
r  Lib.  10.  Epist.  42,  isf  43. 


48  INTRODUCTION. 

they  looked  upon  the  Christian  assemblies  as  in  the 
number  of  these  unlawful  corporations  ;  and  that  under 
this  pretence  Trajan  endeavoured  to  suppress  them,  will 
appear  from  Pliny's  letter  to  him.  In  the  mean  time  he 
commanded  them  either  to  offer  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  or 
to  be  punished  as  contemners  of  them.  The  people  also 
in  several  places  by  popular  tumults  falling  foul  upon 
them.  The  chief  of  those  who  obtained  the  crown  of 
Martyrdom  under  him,  were  St.  Clemens  bishop  of 
Rome,  St.  Simeon  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  St.  Ignatius 
bishop  of  Antioch,  whom  Trajan  himself  condemned, 
and  sent  to  Rome,  there  to  be  thrown  to  wild  beasts. 

21.  The  persecution  raged,  as  in  the  other  parts  of  the 
empire,  so  especially  in  the  provinces  of  Pontus  and 
Bithynia,  where  Pliny  the  younger  (wIkd  had  some  time 
since  been  consul)  then  governed  as  Pro.  Preetor,  with 
consular  power  and  dignity.  Who  seeing  vast  multi- 
tudes of  Christians  indicted  by  others,  and  pressing  on  of 
themselves  to  execution,  and  that  to  proceed  severely 
against  all  that  came  would  be  in  a  manner  to  lay  waste 
those  provinces,  he  thought  good  to  wi'ite  to  the  empe- 
ror about  this  matter  ;  to  know  his  pleasure  in  the  case. 
His  letter,  because  acquainting  us  so  exactly  with  the 
state  of  the  Christians,  and  the  manner  of  proceeding 
against  them,  and  giving  so  eminent  a  testimony  to  their 
innocency  and  integrity  we  shall  here  insert. 

C.  Plinius   to  the  Emperor  Trajan. 

IT  is  my  custom,  Sir,  in  all  affairs  wherein  I  doubt, 
to  have  recourse  to  you.  For  who  can  better  either 
sway  my  irresolution,  or  instruct  my  ignorance  ?  I  have 
never  been  heretofore  present  at  the  examination  and 
trial  of  Christians ;  and  therefore  know  not  what  the 
crime  is,  and  how  far  it  is  wont  to  be  punished,  or  how 
to  proceed  in  these  inquiries.  Nor  was  I  a  little  at  a 
loss,  whether  regard  be  to  be  had  to  difference  of  age, 
whether  the  young  and  the  weak  be  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  more  strong  and  aged  ?  whether  place  may  be 
allowed  to  repentance,  and  it  may  be  of  any  advantage 


INTRODUCTION.  49^ 

to  him,  who  once  was  a  Christian,  to  cease  to  be  so  ? 
Whether  the  name  alone,  without  other  offences  or  the 
offences  that  g'o  aloni^  with  the  name,  ought  to  be  punish- 
ed "?  In  the  mean  time  towards  those  who  as  Christians 
have  been  brought  before  me,  I  have  taken  this  course ; 
I  asked  them  whether  they  were  Christians  ?  if  they 
confessed  it,  I  asked  them  once  and  again,  threatening 
punishment ;  if  they  persisted,  I  commanded  them  to 
be  executed.  For,  I  did  not  at  all  doubt  but  that,  what- 
ever their  confession  was,  their  stubbornness  and  in- 
flexible obstinacy  ought  to  be  punished.  Others  there 
were  guilty  of  the  like  madness,  whom,  because  they 
were  Roman  citizens,  I  adjudged  to  be  transmitted  to 
Rome.  While  things  thus  proceeded,  the  error,  as  is 
usual,  spreading  further,  more  cases  did  ensue.  A  name- 
less libel  was  presented,  containing  the  names  of  many 
who  denied  themselves  to  be,  or  to  have  been  Chris- 
tians. These,  when  after  my  example  they  invocated 
the  gods  and  offered  wine  and  incense  to  your  statue 
(which  for  that  purpose  I  had  commanded  to  be  brought 
together  with  the  images  of  the  gods)  and  had  more- 
over blasphemed  Christ  (which  it  is  said  none  that  are 
true  Christians  can  be  compelled  to  do)  I  dismissed ; 
others  mentioned  in  the  libel  confessed  themselves 
Christians,  but  presently  denied  it,  that  they  had  indeed 
been  such,  but  had  renounced  it ;  some  by  the  space  of 
three  years,  others  many  years  since,  and  one  five  and 
twenty  years  ago.  All  which  paid  their  reverence  and 
veneration  to  your  statue,  and  the  images  of  the  gods, 
and  blasphemed  Christ.  They  affirmed  that  the  whole 
sum  of  that  sect  or  error  lay  in  this,  that  they  were  wont 
upon  a  set  solemn  day  to  meet  together  before  sun-rise, 
and  to  sing  among  themselves  a  hymn  to  Christ,  as  the 
God  Vv^hom  they  worshipped,  and  oblige  themselves  by 
an  oath,  not  to  commit  any  wickedness,  but  to  abstain 
from  theft,  robbery,  adultery,  to  keep  faith,  and  when 
required,  to  restore  any  pledge  instrusted  with  them. 
Which  done,  then  to  depart  for  that  time,  and  to  meet 
again  at  a  common  meal,  to  partake  of  a  promiscuous 
and  harmless  food  ;  which  yet  they  laid  aside,  after  I  had 

G 


5  0  INTRODLXTIOX. 

published  an  edict,  forbidding,  according  to  your  order, 
the  Heterire  (or  unlawful  assemblies)  to  be  kept.  To 
satisfy  myself  in  the  truth  hereof,  I  commanded  two 
maidens  called  deaconesses,  to  be  examined  upon  the 
rack.  But  1  perceived  nothing  but  a  lewd  and  im- 
moderate superstition,  and  therefore  surceasing  any 
further  process,  I  have  sent  to  pray  your  advice  :  For 
the  case  seemed  to  me  very  worthy  to  be  consulted 
about ;  especially  considering  the  great  numbers  that 
are  in  danger  :  for  very  many  of  all  ages  and  ranks,  both 
men  and  women  are,  and  ^vill  be  called  in  question  :  the 
contagion  of  this  superstition  having  overspread  not 
only  cities,  but  towns  and  country  villages,  which  yet 
seems  possible  to  be  stopped  and  cured.  It  is  very  evi- 
dent that  the  temples,  w-hich  were  almost  quite  forsaken, 
begin  to  be  frequented,  that  the  holy  rites  and  solemni- 
ties of  a  long  time  neglected  are  set  on  foot  again,  and 
that  sacrifices  are  from  all  parts  brought  to  be  sold, 
which  hitherto  foimd  very  few  to  buy  them.  Whence 
it  is  easy  to  conjecture,  what  multitudes  of  persons 
might  be  reclaimed,  if  place  be  given  to  repentance. 

This  letter  w-as  written,  as  is  probable,  about  the  year 
of  our  Lord  107.  Traj.  9  Trajan  lying  then  at  Anti- 
och,  in  order  to  his  wars  in  the  east,  and  where  the  per- 
secution v\'as  very  hot.  By  which  it  is  evident,  what 
unreasonable  and  inveterate  prejudices  e^cn  the  more 
moderate  and  ingenuous  part  of  the  Gentile  world  had 
entertained  against  the  Christian  religion  ;  that  though 
so  innocent  and  unblameable,  as  to  extort  an  honourable 
cliaracter  from  its  greatest  enemies,  and  most  malicious 
apostates,  though  racks  and  tortures  could  force  out 
nothing  to  its  disadvantage  ;  yet  rather  than  not  express 
their  resentments  (what  was  unbecoming  men  of  parts 
and  breeding)  they  loaded  it  with  ill  names  and  hard 
words.  Pliny  we  see  here  scruples  not  to  style  it  not 
only  an  error,  but  madness,  and  a  wicked  and  immode- 
rate superstition,  charging  the  constant  profession  of  it, 
for  stubbornness,  and  an  incurable  obstinacy,  what  in 
itself  was  the  eltect  of  the  most  brave  and  generous  re- 
solution.    And  the  verv  sanie  ci\  ilitv  it  found  from  his 


INTRODUCTION.  51. 

two  intimate  friends,  Tacitus  and  Suteonius,  the  one 
whereof  calls  it  a  '  detestable,  the  other  a  *  novel  and 
mischievous  superstition.  By  this  account  also  we  sec, 
that  though  the  severity  of  the  persecution  might  tempt 
some  to  turn  renegades,  yet  that  so  vast  was  the  spread 
which  Christianity  had  made  in  those  parts,  that  this 
great  man  knew  not  how  to  deal  with  them.  To  direct 
him,  therefore,  in  this  affair,  the^  emperor  returned  this 
following  rescript. 

TRAJAN     TO    PLINY,    GREETING. 

AS  to  the  manner  of  your  procedure,  my  Secun- 
dus,  in  examining  the  causes  cjf  those  who  have  been 
brought  before  you  for  being  Christians,  you  have  taken 
the  course  which  you  ought  to  take  :  for  no  certain  and 
general  law  can  be  so  framed,  as  shall  provide  for  all 
particular  cases.  Let  them  not  be  sought  for;  but  if 
they  be  accused  and  convicted,  let  them  be  punished : 
yet  so,  that  if  any  denies  himself  to  be  a  Christian,  and 
shall  give  evidence  of  it  by  doing  sacrifice  to  our  gods, 
although  heretofore  he  has  been  suspected,  let  him  be 
pardoned  upon  his  repentance.  But  as  for  libels,  pub- 
lished without  the  name  of  the  authors,  let  them  not  be 
valid  as  to  the  crimes  they  charge  ;  for  that  were  an  ill 
precedent,  and  is  not  the  usage  of  our  reign. 

TertuUian"  speaking  of  this  imperial  edict,  calls  it 
"  a  sentence  confounded  by  a  strange  necessity  :  it  al- 
"  lows  them  not  to  be  sought  for,  as  if  they  were  inno- 
"  cent,  and  yet  commands  them  to  be  punished,  as  if 
"  they  were  guilty  :  it  spares  and  rages,  dissembles, 
*'  and  yet  punishes.  Why  does  he  entangle  himself  in 
''  his  own  censure  ?  If  he  condemns  them,  why  does  he 
"  not  hunt  them  out?  if  he  thinks  them  not  to  be 
"  searched  out,  why  does  he  not  acquit  them  ?"  Here 
Tertullian  seems  to  argue  more  like  an  orator  than  lo- 
gician.    For  Trajan  might  be  unwilling  the  Christians 

s  Tacit.  Annal.  1.  15.  c.  44.  p.  319.  t  Sueton.  in  Nffron.  c.  16.  p.  571. 

11  Apol.  c.  2.  c.  3. 


52  INTRODUCTION. 

should  be  nicely  hunted  out,' and  yet  not  think  them  in- 
nocent :  he  could  not  find  them  guilty  of  any  enormous 
crime,  but  only  of  a  strange  and  novel  superstition  :  and 
therefore  while  the}'  concealed  themselves,  did  not  think 
it  reasonable  that  they  should  be  left  to  the  malice  and 
rapine  of  busy  under  officers,   who  acted  under  the  pre- 
sidents  and   governors  of  provinces,    mere   sycophants 
and  calumniators,  iy^c/sic ^^  ^  *..Ao7g,a!v 'sg*s-*<  as''  Melito   styles 
theni  inhis  apology  to  M.  Antonnius, impudent  accusers, 
and  ravenous  devourers  of  other  men's  estates,  of  whom 
he  complains,  that,  under  a  pretence  of  the  imperial  edicts 
they  day  and  night  openly  spoil  and  plunder  the  harm- 
less and  ihe  innocent.     These  Trajan  might  tliink  fit 
to   restrain ;     but  where    there    was    notoriety    of  fact, 
where  Christians  were  duly  cited  before  the  public -tri- 
bunals, and  the  charge  substantially  made  good,  there 
they  v\'ere  to  be  left  to  the  sentence  of  the  law.     But 
however  it  was,  by  this  means  the  edge  of  their  enemies' 
fury  was  taken  off;  and  though  the  popular  rage  might 
in  some  particular  places  still  continue,  yet  the  general 
force  and  rigour  of  the  persecution  did  abate  and  cease. 
22.  Trajan  dying  at  Selinus  in  Cilicia,  Adrian  (whom 
he  had  adopted)  succeeded  in  the  empire.     A  prince  of 
excellent  parts,  and  no  inconsiderable  learning,   u>i'!Ku:r^'<^ 
;S«t5-A4i/<,  as  ^'  Athenasus  calls  him.  a  prince  greatly  devoted 
to  the  muses,  and  yet  one  in  whom  it  is  hard  to  say,  whe- 
ther vice  or  virtue  had  the  upper  hand ;    and  which  is 
more,   who  seemed  to  reconcile  most  vices  Avith  their 
contrary  virtues.     He  highly  honoured  the  senate,  with- 
out whose  authority  he  would  never  transact  any  affairs 
of  moment ;  and   upon  solemn  days  would  condescend 
to  wait  upon  the  consuls  to  their  own  houses ;  and  yet 
was  proud  and  vain  glorious,  and  ambitious  of  honour, 
which  he  greedily  caught  at  upon  every  little   occasion. 
He  was  magnificent  in  his  works,  and  liberal  in  his  gifts  ; 
but  withiil,  envious,  detracting  from  the  glory  of  his  pre- 
decessor, censuring  and  discommending  the  most  emi- 
nent artists  in  all  kind  of  faculties.     He  familiarly  con- 

X  Ap.  Euseb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  4.  c.  25,  p.  147-         y  Deinnos.  1  8.  c  16.  p.  561. 


INTRODUCTION.  53 

versed  with  his  friends,   visited  them  in  their  sickness 
many  times  twice  or  thrice  a  day,  treated  them  with  the 
freedom  and  kindness  of  companions  ;  and  yet  he  was 
fierce  and  cruel :  as  is  evident  by  the  many  persons  of 
nobility  and  renown  whom  he  put  to  death.     But  we 
have  noted  enough  of  his  character  elsewhere,  in  the  hfe 
of  St.  Quadratus.     He   was  addicted  to  magic,  and  a 
great  zealot  for  religion  ;  especially  the  rites  of  Greece  : 
but  despised  and  hated  all  other  religions,  upon  which 
account  he  was  no  good  friend  to  Christians.       In  his 
time,  a  fourth  Persecution  was  raised  against  them,  and 
so  Sulpitius  Severus^  positively  calls  it.     I  know  Eu- 
sebius,  followed  by  Orosius  and  some  others,  assigns  the 
fourth  persecution  to  the  reign  of  M.   Aurelius ;   but 
whoever  impartially  considers  the  state  of  things,  will 
see  that  it  ought  to  be  fixed  here.     It  is  true,  we  do  not 
find  any  new  laws  which  this  emperor  made  against  the 
Christians,  but  the  laws  of  his  predecessors  were  still 
in  force,  and  the  people  in  most  places  were  ready  enough 
to  run  upon  this  errand  of  their  own  accord,  and  to  sa- 
crifice the  poor  innocent  Christians  to  their  own    spite 
and  malice.    Whence  Eusebius,  speaking  of  the  Apolo- 
gies presented  to  this  emperor,  says,  *  it  was  because 
wicked  and  ill-minded  men  began  to  vex  and  disturb  the 
Christians.     And  S.  Hierom^  more  particularly  tells  us, 
that  the  zeal  which  the  emperor  showed  in  being  initia- 
ted into  the  holy  mysteries  and  the  rites  of  Greece,  gave 
opportunity  and  encouragement  to  the  people  (though 
without  any  particular  warrant)  to  fall  upon  them  :    and 
this  he  elsewhere*"  calls  a  most  grievous  persecution.  And 
so  indeed  it  was,  as  is  evident,  not  only  from  the  Apolo- 
gies which  both  Quadratus  and  Aristides  presented  to 
the  emperor  in  behalf  of  the  Christians,  but  that  when 
Arrius  Antoninus  "^  (whom  most  suppose  to  have  been 
the  same  with  him  that  succeeded  Adrian)  was  procon- 
sul   of    Asia,   and  severely   prosecuted  the   Christians 
there,  all  the  Christians  of  the  city  where  he  resided  as 

z  H.  Sacr.  1.  2.  p.  142.  a  H.  Eccles.  1.  4.  c.  3  p.  116. 

b  De  script  in  Qiuidrat.  c  Epist.  ad  Magn.  Oral.  p.  32r.  Tom.  2- 

d  TerluU.  lib.  ad.  Scapul,  c.  4.  p.  71. 


^4  INTRODUCTION. 

one  man  beset  his  tribunal,  openly  confessing  themselves 
to  be  Christians.  He,  amazed  at  the  multitude,  caused 
some  few  of  them  to  be  executed,  telling  the  rest,  that 
if  they  had  a  mind  to  end  their  lives,  they  had  precipices 
and  halters  enough  at  home,  and  need  not  crowd  thither 
for  an  execution.  Nay  so  high  did  it  arise,  that  Serenius 
Granianus,  one  of  the  following  proconsuls  was  forced 
to  write  to  Adrian  for  its  mitigation  :  wliich  the  emper- 
or accordingly  commanded  by  a  rescript,  directed  to 
Minucius  Fundanus,  Granianus's  successor  in  that 
Province,  as  he  did  also  to  several  others  ;  as  Melito 
pai-ticularly  tells  us  in  his  apology.  But  though  the  fire 
seemed  to  be  pretty  well  quenched  at  present,  yet  did  it 
break  out  again  in  the  succeeding  reign  of  Antoninus 
Pius,  devouring  many,  whose  sufferings  are  recorded  in 
the  martyrologies  of  the  church,  and  for  the  stop- 
ping whereof,  Justin  Martyr  exhibited  an  apology  to 
this  emperor,  which  produced  that  excellent  letter  of 
his  to  the  common  council  of  Asia,  in  favour  of  the 
Christians,  which  we  have  exemplified  in  the  life  of  Jus- 
tin Martyr. 

23.  ToAntonniusPius  succeeded  M.  Aurelius  Anto- 
ninus, and  his  brother  L.  Verus.  M.  Aurelius  was  a  per- 
son of  whom  the  writers  of  his  life  deservedly  speak 
great  things.  He  was  a  good  man,  and  a  great  philoso- 
pher, and  whom  the  historian "  says,  it  is  easier  to  ad- 
mire, than  to  commend..  But  he  was  infinitely  super- 
stitious in  his  religion,  and  therefore  easily  blown  up  by 
the  priests  and  philosophers  that  were  about  him  into  a 
prejudice  against  Christianity,  and  persuaded  to  set  on 
foot  the  fifth  Persecution  against  the  Christians,  whom 
he  endeavoured  to  curb  and  suppress  by  new  laws  and 
edicts,  exposing  them  to  all  the  malice  and  fierceness  of 
their  enemies.  The  persecution  began  in  the  eastern 
parts  about  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign,  where  it  con- 
tinued almost  all  his  time  ;  and  not  content  to  stay  there, 
spread  itself  into  the  west,  especially  France,  wliere  it 
raged  with  great  severity.     That  the  conflict  v/as  very 

e  Eutrop.  H.  Rom.  lib.  8.  p.  1919. 


Introduction.  55 

sharp  and  fierce,  may  be  guessed  at  by  the  crowd  of 
apologies  that  were  presented  to  him  by  Justin  Martyr, 
Melito,  Athenagoras,  and  Apollinaris.  In  Asia  St.  Poly- 
carp  bishop  of  Smyrna  was  first  condemned  to  the  fire, 
and  then  run  through  with  a  sword,  with  twelve  more 
from  Philadelphia,  who  suffered  with  him,  and  Germani- 
cus  who  a  little  before  was  devoured  by  wild  beasts. 
At  Rome,  besides  Ptolomy  and  Lucius,  Justin  the  mar- 
tyr with  his  six  companions,  Charito,  Charitina,  Euel- 
pistus,  Hierax,  Peon,  and  Valerianus  were  beheaded. 
In  the  French  persecution  suffered  Vettius  Epagathus, 
a  young  man  of  incomparable  piety  and  magnanimity ; 
Blandina  a  lady  of  singular  virtue,  who  after  infinite  and 
inexpressible  torments  was  tied  to  a  beam  in  fashion  of 
a  cross,  and  thrown  to  wild  beasts ;  Biblis,  who  though 
at  first  through  frailty  she  denied  the  faith,  3xt  recovered 
her  courage,  and  expired  in  the  midst  of  the  acutest 
tortures.  Pothinus,  bishop  of  Lyons  above  90  years  old 
beaten  and  stoned  to  death.  Sanctus  a  deacon  of  Vien, 
together  with  Maturus,  exposed  in  the  amphitheatre, 
tormented,  and  imprisoned  several  days  together,  pre- 
sented to  wild  beasts,  placed  in  an  iron  chair  red  hot, 
and  at  last  run  through  with  a  spear.  Attalus  a  Roman 
citizen  disgracefully  led  up  and  down  in  triumph,  roast- 
ed in  an  iron  chair,  and  then  beheaded ;  as  was  also 
Alexander,  the  physician,  a  Phrygian,  who  readily  pro- 
fessed himself  a  Christian  :  and  Ponticus  a  youth  of 
fifteen  years  of  age,  who  through  all  the  methods  of 
cruelty  and  torment,  which  might  have  shaken  a  matu- 
rer  age,  entered  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  A  larger 
and  more  particular  account  of  all  whose  matrydoms  is 
recorded  in  the  letter  written  by  the  churches  of  Lyons 
and  Vien,  in  France,  to  those  of  Asia  and  Phrygia,  yet 
extant  in  Eusebius.  At  length  tlie  emperor  seems  to 
have  relaxed  the  persecution,  inclined  to  it,  as  is  thought, 
by  the  remarkable  victory  which  he  gained  in  his  Ger- 
man wars,  by  the  prayers  of  the  Christian  legion, 
when  the  fortunes  of  the  Roman  empire  lay  at  stake, 
and  the  Christians  so  signally,  so  immediately  engaged 
heaves  in  its  rescue  and  deli\erancc,  by  supplying" them 


56  INTRODUCTION. 

with  rain,  and  fi^^hting  against  the  enemy  \\  ith  lightning- 
and  thunder.  Whereupon  the  emperor  is  said  to  have 
written  to  the  senate,  acknowledging  the  greatness  of  the 
blessing,  and  commandmg  all  just  favour  and  indulgence 
to  be  showed  to  the  Christians.  The  substance  of  the 
story  is  universally  owned  by  the  Gentile  writers,  though 
out  of  spite  to  the  Christians,  they  either  ascribe  it  to 
the  power  of  magic,  or  the  prevalency  of  the  emperor's 
ovv^n  prayers.  That  there  were  such  letters  WTitten,  is 
plain,  in  that  Tertulian  ^  who  lived  but  a  little  after,  cites 
them,  and  appeals  to  them  ;  though  I  confess  little  stress 
can  be  laid  upon  the  epistle  that  is  extant  at  this  day^ 
There  is  still  extant  ^  a  law  of  M.  Aurelius,  and  his  bro- 
ther Verus,  permitting  those  who  follow  the  Jewish  su- 
perstition to  obtain  honours,  and  granting  them  guards 
to  defend  them  from  wrong  and  injury.  By  this  very 
learned  men  ^  understand  Christians,  at  least  equally  with 
the  Jews  ;  these  two  being  commonly  confounded  by  the 
writers  of  those  times,  and  superstition  the  word  by  which 
they  usually  denote  Christianity.  But  however  it  was, 
this  law  was  made  before  that  German  victory,  M.  Aure- 
lius not  being  engaged  in  that  war,  till  after  the  death  of 
his  brother  Verus. 

24.  The  christian  affairs  were  tolerably  quiet  and 
peaceable  during  the  reigns  of  Commodus,  ^^1.  Pertinax, 
and  Julian,  till  Se verus  got  into  the  throne ;  a  prince 
witty  and  learned,  prudent  and  politic,  hardy  and  valiant, 
but  withal  crafty  and  subtle,  treacherous  and  unfaithful, 
bloody  and  passionate,  and  as  the  historian'  observes, 
of  a  nature  truly  answering  to  his  name.  Fere  Pert'max, 
vere  Severus.  Under  him  began  the  sixth  Persecution  : 
for  though  at  first  he  showed  iiimsclf  favourable  to  the 
Christians,  yet  afterwards  he  changed  his  mind,  and  gave 
ear  to  those  who  traduced  them  as  an  impious  and  infa- 
mous generation  ;  a  people  that  designed   nothing  but 

f  Apol.  c.  5.  p.  fj.  vido  lib.  ail  5c:ip.  c.4.p.  71. 

g  Ap.  Ulpiun.  1.  .3.  ff.  :5.  S.  lib.  50.  l  it.  2. 

h  Alolrd.  dispimct.  1.  3.  c  d.  A.  Aui^ii.-t.  rul  Mnd'^st.  p  336.  Peti^.  de  jur. 
Princip.  c.  (5.  vide  Seidell  de  Syneilf.  1.  1.  c.  £.  p.  233.  Re;naud.  Indic.  S5 
Lugd.  jiroleg.  3.  p.  52. 

i  Spartiaa.  in  vit.  Sever,  c-  14  p.  3'i9. 


INTRODUCTION.  5t 

treason  and  rebellion  against  the  state.     Whereupon  he 
not  only  suftcred  his  ministers  and  governors  of  provin- 
ces to  treat  tlicm  with   all    imaginable   cruelty,   but  lie 
himself  gave  out  edicts  forbidding  any  under  the  most 
terrible  penalties  to  profess  either  the  Jewish  or  Chris- 
tian  religion  ;   which  were  executed  with  that  rigour  and 
inhumanity,  that  the  Christians  of  those  days  verily  be- 
lieved that  the  times  of  Antichrist  did  then  take  place. 
INIartyrs  of  note,  whom  this  Persecution  sent  to  heaven, 
were  Victor  bishop  of  Rome,    Leonidas  Origcn's  father 
beheaded  at  Alexandria,  Serenus,   Heraclides,  Heron, 
another  Serenus,  and  Herais  a  Catechumen,  all  Origen's 
scholars,  Potamiasna,  an  illustrious  virgin,  and  her  mother 
Marcella,    after    various  torments,     committed   to  the 
flames,    and  Basilides   one  of  the  officers  that  had  led 
them  to  execution  ;   Ftelicitas  and  Perpetua    two  noble 
ladies,  at  Tuburbis  in   JMauritania,  the  one  brought  to 
bed  but  the  day  before,  the  other  at  that  time  a  nurse  ; 
Speratus  and  his  companions  beheaded  at  Carthage,  by 
the   command   of  Saturninus    the  proconsul  ;   Irenasus 
bishop  of  Lyons,  and  many  thousands  of  his  people  mar- 
tyred with  him,  whose  names  and  sufferings  though  un- 
known to  us,  are  honourably  written  in  tJie  Book  of  life. 
25.    The  next  that   created  any   disturbance  to  the 
Christians  was  Maximinus,  by  birth  a  Thracian,  a  man  of 
base  and  obscure  original,  of  a  mean  and  sordid  educa- 
cation.     He  had  been  first  a  shepherd,   then  a  highway- 
man,  and  last  of  all  a  soldier  :   he  was  of  strength  and 
stature  beyond  the  ordinary  size  and  standard  ;  and  his 
manners  were  as  robust  and  boisterous  as  his  constitution, 
and  savoured  wholly  of  the   rudeness  of  his  education. 
Never  did  a  more  cruel  beast  (says  the  historian  ^)  tread 
upon  the  earth,  relying  altogether  upon  his  strength,  and 
upon  that  account  reckoning  himself  almost  immortal. 

k  'O  Si  Ma£iw/v^  /tpapaxiodit;  Tiiv  aVp^^iiv,  rr'.'/jxi  Tf/  /L'.na^'.y.y^v'tirsni^a.Ti,  t£2^  i/- 

»//'T?iT!;  T»v  i-rX*'''  iii^*t-i<raj.     Herod,  lib.  7.  in  Maxim,  p.  252. 
k  Capitol,  in  vit.  Maxim,  c.  9.  p.  609. 

H 


58  INTRODUCTION. 

He  seized  upon  whatever  came  in  his  way,  pkmdering  and 
destroying  without  any  difference,  without  any  process  or 
form  of  law:  his  strength  was  the  law  of  justice,  and  his 
will  the  measure  of  his  actions.  He  spared  none,  but 
especially  killed  all  that  knew  iiny  thing  of  his  mean  de- 
scent, that  none  might  reproach  him  with  the  obscurity 
of  his  birth.  Ha\ing  slain  his  master  Alexander  Mam- 
masus,  that  excellent  and  incomparable  prince,  he  usurp- 
ed the  government,  and  managed  it  suitable  to  his  own 
maxim,  that  the  empire  could  not  he  mahitamed  hut  hy 
cruelty.  The  sevenih  Persecution  was  raised  by  him. 
Indeed  Sulpitius  Severus  admits  not  this  into  the  num- 
ber, and  therefore  makes  no  more  than  nine  Pagan  Per- 
secutions, reserving  the  tenth  for  the  times  of  Antichrist. 
But  Eusebius  '  expressly  affirms,  that  Maximinus  stirred 
up  a  persecution  against  the  Christians,  and  that  out  of 
hatred  to  his  predecessor,  in  whose  family  many  Chris- 
tians had  found  shelter  and  patronage,  but  that  it  was  al- 
most wholly  levelled  against  the  bishops  and  ministers 
of  religion,  as  the  prime  authors  and  propagators  of  Chris- 
tianity. Whence  Firmilian,  bishop  of  Cappadocia,  in  his 
letter  to  St.  Cyprian,  "*  says  of  it,  that  it  was  not  a  gene- 
ral, but  a  local  persecution,  that  raged  in  some  particular 
places,  and  especially  in  that  province  where  he  lived, 
Serenianus,  the  president,  driving  the  Christians  out  of  all 
those  countries.  He  adds,  that  many  dreadful  earth- 
quakes happening  in  those  parts,  whereby  towns  and 
cities  were  overturned  and  swallowed  up,  added  life  and 
vigour  to  the  persecution,  it  being  usual  with  the  Gentiles, 
ifa  famine  or  pestilence,  an  earthquake  or  inundation 
happened,  presently  to  fall  foul  upon  the  Christians, 
and  conclude  them  the  causes  of  ail  those  evils  and  mis- 
chiefs that  came  upon  the  world.  And  this  Origen"  meant 
when  he  tells  us,  that  he  knew  some  places  overturned  with 
earthquakes,  the  cause  whereof  the  Heathens  cast  upon 
the  Christians  ;  for  which  their  churches  were  persecuted 
and  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  that  not  only  the  common 

1  H.  Eccl  1.  6,  c.  38.  p.  22S.         in  Inter  EpisL  C"p'-.  p.  I'H^. 
n  Horn,  xxvi-i.  in  Mattli.  i'ol.  55  \>.  'i. 


INTRODUCTION.  59 

people,  but   the   wiser  sort  among  them   did  not  stick 
openly  to  affirm,  that  these  things  came  for  the  sake  of 
the  Christians.      Hereupon  he  wrote  his  book  De  Mar- 
tyrio,  for  the  comfort  and  support  of  those  that  suftered 
in  this  evil  time. 

26.  After  Maximinus  reigned  Puplenus  and   Balbi- 
nus,  to  them  succeeded  Gordian,  and  to  him  Philip  :  all 
which  time,  for  at  least  ten  years   together,  the  church 
enjoyed  a  competent  calmness,  and  tranquillity  ;   when 
Decius  was  in  a  manner  forced  in  his  own  defence  to 
take  the  empire  upon  him.     A  man  of  great  activity 
and  resolution,  a  stout  commander,  a  wise  and  prudent 
governor,  so  universally   acceptable  for  his  modest  and 
excellent  carriage,  that  by  the  sentence  of  the  senate  he 
was  voted  not  inferior  to  Trajan,   and  had  the  title  of 
Optimus  adjudged  to  him.     But  he  was  a  bitter  and 
implacable  enemy  to  Christians,  against  whom  he  raised 
the  eighth  Persecution,  which  proved,  though  the  short- 
est,  the  hottest  of  all  the  persecutions  that  had  hitherto 
afflicted  and  oppressed  the   church.     The  ecclesiastic  " 
historians  generally  put  it  upon  the  account  of  Decius's 
hatred   to    his  predecessor  Philip,    for  being  a  Chris- 
tian ;  whereas  it  is  more  truly  to  be  ascribed  to  his  zeal 
for  the  cause  of  declining  paganism,  which  he  saw  fa- 
tally  undermined   by    Christianity,   and   that   therefore 
there  was  no  way  to  support  the  one,  but  by  the  ruin  of 
the  other.     We   have  more  than  once  taken  notice  of  it 
in   some  of  the  following  lives,  and  therefore  shall  say 
the  less  here.     Decius  reigned   somewhat  above    two 
years,  during  which  time  the  storm  was  very  black  and 
violent,   and  no    place  but   felt  the  dreadful  effects  of 
it.     They  were  every  where  driven  from  their  houses, 
spoiled  in  their  estates,  tormented  in  their  bodies.  Whips 
and  prisons,   fires  and  wild  beasts,  scalding  pitch  and 
melted  wax,  sharp  stakes  and  burning  pincers  were  but 
some  of  the  methods  of  their  treatment ;  and  when  the 
old  ones  were  run  over,   new  were  daily  invented  and 

o  Etiseb.  W.  Eccl.  1.  6  c.  39.  p.  234.  Chrcn.  ad  .\nii.  ?52.  Oros.  1.  7  c   21 
fol.  310.  Nictph.  1.  5.  c.  27-  p.  377. 


60  INTRODUCTION. 

contrived.  The  laws  of  nature  and  humanity  were  bro- 
ken down  ;  friend  betrayed  his  friend,  and  the  nearest 
relative  his  own  father  or  brother.  Every  one  was  am- 
bitious to  promote  the  imperial  edicts,  and  thought  it 
meritorious  to  bring  a  Christian  to  the  stake.  This  per- 
secution swept  away  at  Alexandria,  Julian,  Chronion, 
Epimachus,  Alexander,  Amnion,  Zeno,  Ptolomy,  Am- 
monaria,  Mcrcuria,  Isidore,  and  many  others  mentioned  by 
Dionysius  bishop  of  that  church  ;  at  Carthage,  jNIappa- 
licus,  Bassus,  Fortunio,  Paulus,  Donatus,  Martialis,  &c. 
it  crowned  Babylas  bishop  of  Antioch,  Alexander  of 
Jerusalem,  Fabian  bishop  of  Rome,  Victoria,  Anatolia, 
Parthenius,  Marcellianus,  and  thousands  more  :  Nice- 
phorus^  affirming  it  to  be  easier  to  count  the  sands  of  the 
shore,  than  to  reckon  up  all  the  martyrs  that  suffered 
under  this  persecution.  Not  to  say  any  thing  of  those 
incredible  numbers  of  confessors  that  Avere  beaten,  im- 
prisoned, tormented  ;  nor  of  the  far  greater  number  of 
those  who  betook  themselves  to  a  voluntary  exile ; 
choosing  rather  to  commit  themselves  to  the  barrenness 
of  rocks  and  mountains,  and  the  mercy  of  wild  beasts, 
than  to  those  that  had  put  off  all  reason  and  humanity. 
Among  whom  was  Paul  of  Thebais,  a  youth  of  fifteen 
years  of  age,  who  withdrew  himself  into  the  Egyptian 
deserts,  where  finding  a  large  and  convenient  cavern  in 
a  rock  (which  heretofore  had  been  a  private  mint  house 
in  the  time  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra)  he  took  up  his 
abode  and  residence,  led  a  solitary  and  anchoretic  course 
of  life,  and  became  the  father  of  hermits,  and  those 
who  afterwards  were  desirous  to  retire  from  the  world, 
and  to  resign  up  themselves  to  solitude,  and  a  more 
strict  mortified  life.  In  this  pious  and  devout  retire- 
ment he  continued  till  he  was  113  years  of  age,  and  in 
the  last  period  of  his  life  was  visited  by  Antonius,  who 
had  spent  the  greatest  part  of  90  years  in  those  desert 
places,  and  wjio  now  performed  the  last  offices  to  him  in 
committing  his  dead  body  to  the  earth. 

p  Lib.  5,  c.  29,  p.  370. 


INTRODUCTION.  Gl 

27.  Gallus  succeeded  Decius  as  in  his  government, 
so  in  his  enmity  to  Christians,  carrying  on  what  the 
other  had  begun.  But  the  cloud  soon  blew  over  ;  for 
he  being  cut  off,  was  succeeded  by  Valerian,  who  enter- 
ed upon  the  empire  with  an  universal  applause  and  ex- 
pectation. In  the  beginning  of  his  reign  he  was  a  great 
patron  of  Christians,  whom  hfe  treated  with  all  offices  of 
kindness  and  humanity,  entertaining  them  in  his  own 
family  ;  so  that  his  court  seemed  to  be  a  little  church 
for  piety,  and  a  sanctuary  for  refuge  to  good  men.  But, 
alas,  this  pleasant  scene  was  quickly  over  ;  seduced  by  a 
chief  magician  of  Egv^pt,  who  persuaded  him  that  the 
only  way  to  prosper  his  affairs,  was  to  restore  the  Gen- 
tile rites,  and  to  suppress  Christianity,  so  hateful  to  the 
gods,  he  commenced  a  ninth  Persecution,  wherein  he 
prosecuted  the  Christians  with  all  imaginable  fury  in  all 
parts  of  the  empire.  With  what  fierceness  it  raged  in 
Egypt,  is  largely  related  by  Dionysius  of  Alexandria, 
and  we  have  in  a  great  part  noted  in  his  life.  It  is  need- 
less (says  he  '^)  particularly  to  reckon  up  the  Christians 
that  suffered  in  this  persecution :  only  this  you  may  ob- 
serve, that  both  men  and  women,  young  and  old,  sol- 
diers and  country  people,  persons  of  all  ranks  and  ages, 
were  some  of  them  scourged  and  whipped,  others  be- 
headed, others  overcoming  the  violence  of  flames,  re- 
ceived the  crown  of  martyrdom.  Cyprian  elegantly  and 
passionately  bewails  the  miseries  and  sufferings  which 
the  martyrs  underwent,  in  his  letter  to  Nemesian,  and 
the  rest  that  were  condemned  to  the  mines.  Nor  did 
he  himself  escape,  being  beheaded  at  Carthage,  as  Xistus 
and  Quartus  had  been  before  him,  and  the  three  hun- 
dred martyrs  De  Massa  Candida,  who  rather  than  do 
sacrifice,  chearfully  leapt  into  a  mighty  pit  of  burning 
lime,  kindled  for  that  purpose,  and  were  immediately 
stifled  in  the  smoke  and  flames.  In  Spain  suffered  Fruc- 
tuosus,  bishop  of  Tarragon,  together  with  his  two  dea- 
cons, x\ugurius  and  Eulogius ;  at  Rome,  Xistus  the 
bishop,  and  St.  Laurence  his  deacon  and  treasurer  of 

q  Epiit.  ad  Dtm'u.  &  DIJ.  ap,  Euseb.  I.  7.  <:.  11.  p.  260. 


62  INTRODUCriOX. 

that  church  ;  at  Caesarea,  Priscus,  Malchus,  and  Alex- 
ander, who  ashamed,  to  think  that  they  lay  idle  and  se- 
cure, while  so  many  others  were  contending  for  the 
crown,  unanimously  went  to  the  judge,  confessed  they 
were  Christians,  received  their  sentence,  and  under- 
went their  martyrdom.  But  the  Divine  Providence, 
which  sometimes  in  this  world  pleads  the  cause  of 
oppressed  innocence,  was  resolved  to  punish  the  em- 
peror for  his  causeless  cruelty  towards  those  whose  in- 
terest with  heaven  (while  he  continued  favourable  to 
them)  had  secured  his  happiness  :  and  therefore  did  not 
only  suffer  the  northern  nations  to  break  in  upon  him, 
but  he  himself  was  taken  prisoner  by  Sapor  king  of  Per- 
sia, who  treated  him  below  the  rate  of  the  meanest  slave, 
used  him  as  his  footstool  to  get  on  horseback,  and 
after  several  years  captivity  caused  him  to  be  flayed  alive, 
and  rubbed  with  salt,  and  so  put  a  period  to  his  miserable 
life.  A  fair  w^arnhig  to  his  son  Gallienus,  who  growing 
wiser  by  the  mischiefs  and  miscarriages  of  his  father, 
stopped  the  persecution,  and  restored  peace  and  security 
to  Christians. '' 

28.  A  long  peace  and  prosperity  (for  except  a  little 
disturbance  in  the  time  of  Aureiian,  they  met  with  no 
op^wsition  through  the  reigns  of  Gallienus,  Claudius, 
Tacitus,  Florianus,  Probus,  Cams,  and  Numerian)  had 
somewhat  corrupted  the  manners  of  Christians,  and 
therefore  God  was  pleased  to  permit  a  tenth  Persecution 
to  come  upon  them  to  purge  and  winnow  the  rubbish 
and  the  chaff:  the  ulcer  began  to  putrify,  and  it  was 
time  to  call  for  the  knife  and  the  caustic.  It  began  un- 
under  Dioclesian  and  his  colleague  Maximian.  Diocle- 
sian  was  a  prince  active  and  diligent,  crafty  and  subtle, 
fierce  in  his  nature,  but  which  he  knew  how  cunningly 
to  dissemble.  His  zeal  for  the  Pagan  religion  engaged 
him  with  all  possible  earnestness  to  oppose  Christianity, 

fiifrtxsxii  Ki<r/xu.  TsA®^  <?«  lar:  I^Arircx  \1':^tS>ii  ^-xs-a.ia^  i.'J'^t-iiyu  Ktf.is-iriii  /I  Tagi-^ 
v»tO^=ic,  Tpiinrcttov  "f  ffivri  J'j^u^jn;  sf/nTitc  xjai'.'iv.  Constant.  JNI.  Orat.  ad  SS  C»je- 
kun,  cap.  24.  pag.  600. 


INTRODUCTION.  63 

which  he  carried  on  with  a  high  hand,  it  being*  as  the 
last,  so  the  fiercest  Persecution,  like  the  last  efforts  of  a 
dvinj^  enemy,  that  summons  all  his  strength  to  give  the 
parting  blow.  Dioclesian  then  residing  at  Nicomedia 
published  his  edicts  about  the  very  solemnity  of  our  Sa- 
viour's passion,  commanding  the  Christian  churches  to 
be  pulled  down,  their  bibles  to  be  burnt,  the  better  sort 
of  them  to  be  branded  with  infamy,  the  vulgar  to  be  made 
slaves ;  as  by  subsequent  orders  he  commanded  the 
bishops  to  be  every  where  imprisoned,  and  forced  to  sa- 
crifice. But  these  were  but  a  prasludium  to  M'hat  follow- 
ed after,  other  proclamations  being  put  forth,  command- 
ing those  that  refused  to  offer  sacrifice  to  be  exposed  to 
all  manner  of  torments.  It  were  endless  to  reckon  up 
particular  persons  that  suflered  in  this  evil  time.  Euse- 
bius  who  lived  under  this  very  persecution,  has  recorded 
a  vast  number  of  them,  with  the  acts  of  their  martyr- 
dom ;  too  many  to  account  for  in  this  place.  It  may 
suffice  to  note  from  him,  that  they  were  scourged  to 
death,  had  their  flesh  torn  off  with  pincers,  or  raked  off 
with  pieces  of  broken  pots;  were  cast  to  lions  and  tygers, 
to  wild  boars  and  bears,  provoked  and  enraged  w^ith  fire 
to  set  upon  them,  burnt,  beheaded,  crucified,  thrown  in- 
to the  sea,  torn  in  pieces  by  the  distorted  boughs  of 
trees,  or  their  legs  miserably  distended  in  the  stocks, 
roasted  at  a  gentle  fire,  or  by  holes  made  on  purpose  had 
melted  lead  poured  into  their  bowels.  But  impossible 
it  is  to  conceive,  much  more  to  express  the  cruelties  of 
that  time.  Eusebius  himself,  who  saw  them,  tells'  us, 
that  they  were  innumerable,  and  exceeded  all  relation. 
All  which  he  assures  us  they  endured  with  the  most  ad- 
mirable and  undaunted  patience  ;  they  thronged  to  the 
tribunals  of  their  judges,  and  freely  told  them  what  they 
were ;  despised  the  threatenings  and  barbarity  of  their 
enemies,  and  received  the  fatal  and  decretory  sentence 
with  a  smile  ;  wdien  persuaded  to  be  tender  of  their  lives, 
and  to  compassionate  the  case  of  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, they  bore  up  against  the  temptation  with  a  manly 
agd  philosophic  mind,  ^Ma/.^o/ j'j  k9-sC«7 .5  ^fxAseea.  ^^^^  as  he  adds, 

s-Lil).  8.  c.  12.  p,  307. 


64  INTRODUCTION. 

yea  rather  with  a  soul  truly  pious  and  devoted  unto  God; 
bo  that  neither  fears  nor  charms  could  take  hold  upon 
them,  at  once  giving  undeniable  evidences  both  of  their 
own  courage  and  fortitude,  and  of  that  Divine  and  un- 
conceivable power  of  our  Lord  that  went  along  with 
them.  The  acutest  torments  did  not  shake  the  firmness 
and  stability  of  their  minds,  but  they  could  with  as  much 
unconcernedness  lay  down  their  lives  (as  Oiigen*  tells 
Celsus)  as  the  best  philosopher  could  put  oiT  his  coat. 
They  valued  their  innocency  above  their  ease,  or  life  it- 
self, and  sufficiently  showed  they  believed  another  state, 
by  an  argument  beyond  what  any  institution  of  philoso- 
phy could  afford.  "  The  great  philosophers  of  the  Gen- 
"  tiles  (as  Euscbius*"  reasons  in  this  matter)  as  much  as 
**  they  talk  of  immortalit}',  and  the  happiness  of  the  fu- 
"  ture  state,  did  yet  show  that  they  looked  upon  it  only 
*'  as  a  childish  and  a  trifling  report :  whereas  amongst  us 
*'  even  boys  and  girls,  and  as  to  outward  appearance,  the 
*'  meanest  and  rudest  persons,  being  assisted  by  the 
*'  power  and  aid  of  our  blessed  Savour,  do  by  their  ac- 
*'  tions  rather  than  their  words,  demonstrate  the  truth  of 
"  this  great  principle,  the  immortality  of  the  soul."  Ten 
years  this  persecution  lasted  in  its  strength  and  vigour, 
under  Dioclesian  in  the  east,  and  Maximian  in  the  west : 
and  they  thought,  it  seems,  they  had  done  their  work, 
and  accordingly  tell  the  world,  in  some  ancient  inscrip- 
tions, *  that  they  had  utterly  defaced  the  name  and  super- 
stition of  the  Christians,  and  had  restored  and  propaga- 
ted the  worship  of  the  gods ;  but  were  miserably  mis- 
taken in  the  case  ;  and  as  if  weary  of  the  work,  laid  down 
their  purple,  and  retired  to  the  solitudes  of  a  private  life. 
And  though  Galerius,  Maximianus,  Jovius  Maximinus, 
Maxentius,  and  Licinius  did  what  they  could  to  set  the 
persecution  on  foot  again,  yet  all  in  vain  ;  both  they  and 
it  in  a  very  few  years  expiring  and  dwindlinginto  nothing. 
29.  Thus  we  have  seen  the  hardships  and  miseries,  the 
torments  and  sufferings  which  the  Christians  were  expo- 

t  Contr.  Ccls.  1.  7.  p.  357. 

u  Prxpav.  Evan.  1. 1.  c.  4.  p.  lo. 

X  Ap.  Gruter.  p:ig'.  280.  num.  3  &.  4. 


INTRODUCTION.  65 

seel  to  for  several  ages,  and  with  how  invincible  a  patience 
they  went  through  with  them.  Let  us  now  a  little  re- 
view the  argument,  and  see  what  force  and  influence  it 
had  to  convince  the  world  of  the  truth  of  their  religion, 
and  bring  in  converts  to  the  faith.  TertuUian  ^'  tells  the 
Gentiles,  "  That  all  their  cruelty  was  to  no  purpose,  that 
"  it  was  but  a  stronger  invitation  to  bring  over  others  to 
"  the  party  ;  that  the  oftener  they  mowed  them  down, 
*'  the  faster  they  sprang  up  again  ;  and  that  the  blood  of 
"  Christians  was  a  seed  that  grew  up  into  a  more  plenti- 
*'  ful  harvest ;  that  several  among  the  Gentiles  had  ex- 
**  horted  their  auditors  to  patience  under  suffering,  but 
"  could  never  make  so  many  proselytes  with  all  their  fine 
*'  discourses,  as  the  Christians  did  by  their  actions  :  that 
"  that  very  obstinacy  which  was  so  much  charged  upon 
"  them  was  a  tutor  to  instruct  others.  For  who  when 
*'  they  beheld  such  things,  could  not  but  be  powerfully 
"  moved  to  inquire  what  really  was  within?  who  when 
"  he  had  once  found  it,  would  not  embrace  it  ?  and  having 
"  once  embraced  it,  not  be  desirous  to  suffer  for  it ;  that 
*'  so  he  may  obtain  the  full  grace  of  God,  and  the  pardon 
"  of  his  sins  assured  by  the  shedding  of  his  blood." 
Lactantius  ""  manages  this  ai'gument  with  incomparable 
eloquence  and  strength  of  reason  :  his  discourse  is  some- 
what long,  but  not  unworthy  the  reader's  consideration. 
"  Since  our  number  (says  he)  is  always  increased  from 
"  amongst  the  votaries  of  the  heathen  deities,  and  is 
"  never  lessened,  no  not  in  the  hottest  persecution,  who 
*'  is  so  blind  and  stupid,  as  not  to  see  in  which  party  true 
"  Vv'isdom  docs  reside  ?  But  they,  alas,  are  blinded 
"  with  rage  and  malice,  and  think  all  to  be  fools,  who 
•'  when  it  is  in  their  power  to  escape  punishment, 
"  choose  rather  to  be  tortured  and  to  die  ;  when  as 
"  they  might  perceive  by  this,  that  that  can  be  no 
"  such  folly,  wherein  so  many  thousands  throughout 
''  the  whole  world  do  so  unanimously  conspire.  Suppose 
"  that  women,  through  the  weakness  of  their  sex,  may 
'*  miscarry   (and  they  are  pleased   sometimes  to  style 

y  Apolog-.  c.  uU.  p.  40.        z  De  Justlt.  I  5.  c.  IS.  p.  494 
I 


G6  INTRODUCTION* 

*'  this  religion  an  effeminate  and  oldwives'  superstition) 
"  yet  certainly  men  are  wiser.      If  children  and  young 
"  men  may  be  rasli,  yet  at  least  those  of  a  mature  age  and 
"  old  men  have  a  more  stable  judgment.      If  one  city 
"  might  play  the  fool,  yet  innumerable  others  cannot  be 
*'  supposed  to  be  guilty  of  the  same  folly.      If  one  pro- 
*'  vince,  or  one  nation  should  want  care  and  providence, 
"  yet  all  the  rest  cannot  lack    understanding  to  judge 
"  what  is  right.     But  now  when  the  Divine  law  is  enter- 
*'  tained  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down 
*'  thereof,  and  every  sex,  age,  nation,  and  country  serves 
"  God  with  one  heart  and  soul ;  \\ hen  there   is  every 
'•  where  the  same  patience  and  contempt  of  death,  they 
"  ought  to  consider  that  there  is  some  reason  for  it,  and 
"  that  it  is  not  without  cause,   that  it  is  maintained  even 
"  unto  death  :  that  there  is  some  fi;scd  foundation  Mhen 
*'  a  religion  is  not  only  not   shattered  by   injuries  and 
"  persecutions,  but  always  increased  and  rendered  more 
"  iirm  and  stable.      When  the  very  common  people  see 
"  men  torn  in  pieces  by  various  engines  of  torment,  and 
"  yet  miiintain  a  patience  unconquerable  in  the  midst  of 
"  their  tired  tormentors  ;  they  cannot  but  think  what 
"  the  truth  is,  that  the  consent  of  so  many,  and  their  per- 
"  severance  unto  death,  cannot  be  in  vain,  nor  that  pa- 
"  tience  itself,  without  the  Divine  assistance,  should  be 
"  able  to  overcome  such  exquisite  tortures.     Highway- 
*'  men  and  persons  of  the  most  robust  constitutions  are 
"  not  able  to  bear  such  pulling  asunder  ;  they  roar,  and 
"  groan,  and  sink  under  pain,  because  not  furnished  with 
"  a  Divine  patience.     But  our  very  children  (to  say  no- 
"  thing  of  our  men)  and  our  tender  women,  do  by  silence 
"  conquer   their  tormentors  ;  nor  can  the  flames  extort 
"  one  sigh  from  them.     Let  the  Romans  go  now,   and 
"  boast  of  their  Mutius  and  their  Regulus,  one  of  which 
•'  delivered  up  himself  to  be  put  to  death  by  his  enemies, 
*'  because  he  was  ashamed  to  live  a  prisoner  ,  the  other 
"  thrust  his  hand  into  the  fire  when  he  saw  he  could  not 
"  escape  death.     Behold,  with  us  the  weaker  sex,  and 
"  the  more  delicate  age  sutler  the  whole  body  to  be  torn 
^'  and  burnt ;  not  because  they  could  not  avoid  it  if  they 


INTRODUCTION.  6r 

"  would,  but  vohintaiily,  because  they  trust  in  God. 
' '  This  is  true  virtue,  which  philosophers  in  vain  only 
'*  talk  of,  when  they  tell  us,  that  nothing  is  so  suitable 
"  to  the  gravity  and  constancy  of  a  wise  man,  as  not  by 
*'  any  terrors  to  be  driven  from  his  sentiments  and  opi- 
"  nions  ;  but  that  it  is  virtuous,  and  great  indeed,  to  be 
"  tortured  and  die,  rather  than  betray  one's  faith,  or  be 
"  wanting  in  his  duty,  or  do  any  thing  that  is  unjust  or 
*'  dishonest,  though  for  fear  of  death,  or  the  acutest  tor- 
*'  ment,  unless  they  thought  their  own  poet  raved,  when 
''  he  said, 

ynstwn  <3'  tenacem  propositi  vinnn^ 
Non  chiuin  ardor  prava  jubentiuw^ 
Non  vultus  instantis  ti/rcnni 
Jlente  qiialit  solida.^ 
The  just  man  that  resolved  stands. 
Not  tvrants'  frowns,  nor  fierce  commands, 
Nor  all  the  peoples'  rage  combln'd, 
Can  shake  the  firmness  of  his  mind. 

"  Than  which  nothing  can  be  more  truly  said,  if  meant  of 
'*  those  who  refuse  no  tortures,  nor  death  itself,  that  they 
"  may  preserve  fidelity  and  justice  ;  who  regard  not  the 
"  command  of  tvrants,  nor  the  swords  of  the  governors, 
"  that  they  may  with  a  constant  mind  preserve  real  and 
"  solid  liberty,  wherein  true  wisdom  alone  is  to  be  main- 
"  tained."  Thus  far  that  elegant  apologist.  And  cer- 
tainly the  truth  of  his  reasoning  was  abundantly  verified 
by  the  experience  of  the  world.  Christians  getting  ground, 
and  conquering  opposition  by  nothing  more  than  their 
patience  and  their  constancy,  till  they  had  subdued  the 
empire  itself  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  truth.  And 
when  once  the  great  Constantine  had  entertained  Chris- 
tianity, it  went  along  with  wind  and  tide,  and  bore  down 
all  before  it.  And  surely  it  might  be  no  unpleasant  sur- 
vey, to  consider  what  was  the  true  state  of  Paganism 
under  the  first  Christian  emperors,  and  how  and  by  what 
degrees  that  religion,  which  for  so  many  years  had  govern- 
ed the  world,  slunk  away  into  obscurity  and  silence.  But 
this  is  a  business  without  the  bounds  of  my  present  in- 
quiry to  search  into. 

a  Horat.  Carm.  1.  3.  Ocl.  3.  p.  154. 


#1 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN, 
THE   PROTOMARTYR. 


THE  violent  opposition  that  Christianity  at  its  first  appearance  met'.vith 
both  from  Jews  and  Gentiles.  St.  Stephen's  kindred  unknown.  One 
of  the  seventy.  The  great  charicy  of  the  primitive  believers.  Dissen- 
tion  between  the  Hebrews  and  Grecians.  Hellenists  who.  The  ori- 
ginal of  deacons  in  the  Christian  church.  The  nature  of  their  office : 
the  number  and  qualification  of  the  persons.  Stephen's  eminent  ac- 
complishments for  the  place.  The  envy  and  opposition  of  the  Jews 
against  him.  The  Synagogue  of  the  Libertines,  what.  OftlieCyre- 
nians,  Alexandrians,  &c.  Their  disputation  with  St.  Stephen,  and  the 
success  of  it.  False  witnesses  suborned  to  depose  against  him.  The 
several  parts  of  their  charge  considered.  The  mighty  veneration  of 
the  Jews  for  their  temple  and  the  Mosaic  institutions.  Its  destruction 
by  Titus  ;  and  their  attempts  to  rebuild  it  under  Julian  frustrated  by 
a  miracle.  Stephen's  apology  before  the  Sanhedrim.  The  Jews;rage 
against  him.  He  is  encouraged  by  a  vision.  Stoning  to  death,  what 
kind  of  punishment ;  the  manner  of  it  among  the  Jews.  St.  Stephen's 
martyrdom.  His  character,  and  excellent  virtues.  The  time  and 
place  of  his  suffering.  The  place  and  manner  of  his  burial.  His  body 
first  discovered,  when  and  how.  The  story  of  its  translation  to 
Constantinople.  The  miracles  said  to  be  done  by  his  reliques,  and  at 
his  Memorix.  Several  reported  by  St.  Augustin.  \Miat  credit  to  be 
g:iven  to  them.  Miracles  how  long,  and  why  continued  in  the  church. 
The  vain  pretences  of  the  church  of  Rome. 

1.  THE  Christian  religion  being  designed  by  God 
for  the  reformation  of  mankind,  and  the  rooting  out  that 
Barbarism  and  idolatry  wherewith  the  world  was  so  over- 
grown, could  not  but  meet  with  opposition,  all  corrupt  in- 
terests conspiring  to  give  it  no  very  welcome  entertain- 
ment.    Vice  and  error  liad  too  long  usurped  the  throne, 


70  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

to  part  with  it  by  a  tame  and  easy  resignation,  but  would 
rather    summon  all  their  forces    against  a  doctrine,  that 
openly  proclaimed  the  subversion  and  ruin  of  their  empire. 
Hence  this  sect  was  every  -where  spoken  against,   equally 
opposed  both  by  Jew  and  Gentile.   The  Gentiles  despised 
it  for  its  lateness  and  novelty,  as  having  no  antiquity  to  re- 
commend it,  nor  could  they  endure  that  their  philosophy, 
which  then  every  where  ruled  the  chair,  should  be  con- 
trolled by  a  plain  simple  doctrine,  that  pretended  to  no  ela- 
borate schemes,  no   insinuative   strains  of  eloquence,  no 
nice  and  subtle  arts  of  reasoning,  no  abstruse  and  sub- 
lime speculations.     The  Jews  were  vexed  to  see  their 
expectations  of  a  mighty  prince  who  should  greatly  exalt 
their  state,  and  redeem  it  from   that  oppression  and  sla- 
very under  which  it  groaned,  frustrated  by  the  coming 
of  a  Messiah,  who  appeared  under  all  the  circumstances 
of  meanness  and  disgrace  ;  and  who  was  so  far  from  res- 
cuing them  from  the  power  of  the  Roman  yoke,  that  for 
their   obstinacy  and  unbelief  he  threatened  the  final  and 
irrevocable  ruin  of  their  country,  and,  by  the  doctrine  he 
published,   plainly   told  them   he    intended    to    abolish 
those  ancient  Mosaic  institutions,  for  which  they  had  such 
dear  regards,  and  so  solemn  a  veneration.     Accordingly 
when  he  came  amongst  them,  they  entertained  him  with 
all  the  instances  of  cruelty  and  contempt,  and  whatever 
might  expose  him  to  the  scorn  and  odium  of  the  people  ; 
they  vilified  and  reproached  his  person,  as  but  the  son  of 
a  carpenter,  a  glutton  and  a  drunkard,  a  traitor  and  an 
enemy  ujito   Ccesar ;  they   slighted  his   doctrine   as  the 
talk  only  of  a  rude  and  illiterate  person,  traduced  his  mi- 
racles as  tricks  of  imposture,  and  the  effects  of  a  black 
confederacy  with  the  infernal  powers.     And  when  all  this 
would   not  do,  they     violently    laid  hands   upon    him 
and  took    away    his   life.     And  now  one  v^'ould    have 
thought  their  spite  and  fury  should  have  cooled  and  died: 
but  malice  and  revenge  are  too  fierce  and  hot  to  stop  at 
the   first  attempt.     On  they  are  resolved  to   go  in  these 
bloody  methods,  and  to  let  the  world  see   that  the  disci- 
ples and  followers  must  expect  no  better  than  their  mas- 
ter. It  was  not  many  months  before  they  took  occasion  to 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  71 

refresh  their  rage  in  St.  Stephen's  martyrdom  :  the  his- 
tory of  whose  life  and  death  we  now  come  to  relate,  and 
to  make  some  brief  remarks  upon  it. 

2.  The  sacred  story  gives  us  no  particular  account 
either  of  the  country  or  kindred  of  this  holy  man.  That 
he  was  a  Jew  is  unc^ucstionabie,  himself  sufficiently  owns 
the  relation  in  his  apology  to  the  people,  but  whether 
originally  descended  of  the  stock  of  Abraham,  or  of 
parents  incorporated  and  brought  in  by  the  gate  of 
proselytism,  whether  born  at  Jerusalem,  or  among  the 
dispersed  in  the  Gentile  provinces  is  impossible  to  de- 
termine. Baronius"  (grounding  his  conjecture  upon  an 
epistle  of  Lucian,  of  which  more  afterwards)  makes  him 
to  have  been  one  of  Gamaliel's  disciples,  and  fellow 
pupil  with  St.  Paul,  who  proved  afterwards  his  mortal 
enemy  :  but  I  must  confess,  I  find  not  in  all  that  epistle 
the  least  shadow  of  probability  to  countenance  that  con- 
jecture. Antiquity  ^  makes  him,  probably  enough,  to 
have  been  one  of  the  70  disciples,  chosen  by  our  Lord 
as  co-adjutors  to  the  apostles  in  the  ministry  of  the  gos- 
pel :  and  indeed  his  admirable  knowledge  in  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  his  singular  ability  to  defend  the  cause  of 
Christ's  Messiaship  against  its  most  acute  opposers, 
plainly  argue  him  to  have  been  some  considerable  time 
trained  up  under  our  Saviour's  immediate  institutions. 
Certain  it  is,  that  he  was  a  man  of  great  zeal  and  piety ^ 
endowed  with  extraordinary  measures  of  that  divine  Spi- 
rit that  was  lately  shed  upon  the  church,  and  incompara- 
bly furnished  with  miraculous  powers,  which  peculiarlv 
qualified  him  for  a  place  of  honour  and  usefulness  in  the 
church,  whereto  he  was  advanced  upon  this  occasion. 
3.  The  primitive  church  among  the  many  instances 
of  religion  for  which  it  was  famous  and  venerable,  was 
for  none  more  remarkable  than  their  charity.  They  lived 
and  loved  as  brethren ;  rvere  of  one  heart  and  one  souf^ 
and  continued  togcthei-  -ivith  one  accord.  Love  and  chari- 
ty were  the  common  soul  that  animated  the  whole  body 

a  Ad  Ann.  34.  n.  275,  298. 

b  Epiph.    Hk.cs.  20.  p.  27.  D^njth    Syn-ps-   'e   Viv  .App.  in  B.bL   P.  P. 
Tom.  3.  [) 


7t^  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

of  believers,  and  conveyed  heat  and  vital  spirits  to  tvtw 
part.  The}'  prayed  and  worshipped  God  in  the  same 
place,  and  fed  together  at  the  same  table.  None  could 
want,  for  thei/  had  all  in  com?no?i.  The  rich  sold  their 
estates  to  minister  to  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  and 
deposited  the  money  into  one  common  treasury,  the 
care  whereof  was  committed  to  the  apostles,  to  see 
distribution  made  as  every  one's  case  and  exigency  did 
require.  But  in  the  exactest  harmony  there  will  be 
some  jars  and  discord,  heaven  only  is  free  from  quarrels, 
and  the  occasions  of  offence.  The  church  increasing 
every  day  by  vast  numbers  of  converts  to  the  faith,  the 
apostles  could  not  exactly  superintend  the  disposure  of 
the  church's  stock,  and  the  making  provision  for  CAery 
part,  and  were  therefore  probably  forced  to  take  in  the 
help  of  others,  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  less,  to 
assist  in  this  affiiir.  By  which  means  a  due  equality  and 
proportion  was  not  observed,  but  either  through  favour 
and  partiality,  or  the  oversight  of  those  that  managed 
the  matter,  some  had  larger  portions,  others  less  relief 
then  their  just  necessities  called  for.  This  begat  some 
present  heats  and  animosities  in  the  first  and  purest 
church  that  ever  W"as,  the  Gi'eciwis  murmwing  against 
the  llehrexvs^  because  their  widows  xvere  ?jeglected  i?i  the 
daily  ministratio}!. " 

4.  Who  these  Grecians  or  Hellenists  were,  opposed 
here  to  the  Hebrews,  however  a  matter  of  some  difficul- 
ty and  dispute,  it  may  not  be  unuseful  to  inquire.  The 
opinion  that  has  most  generally  obtained  is,  that  they 
w-ere  originally  Jews  born  and  bred  in  Grecian  or  Hea- 
then countries,  of  the  dispersed  among  the  Gentiles'^  (the 
#^^-^T^:^*  Ta'v 'F./A>jviv,  tlic  word  i£-\\>i5f  iu  thc  stylc  of  the  Neu' 
Testament,  as  also  in  thc  writings  of  the  fathers  being 
cornraonlv  used  for  the  Gentile  world)  who  accommo- 
dated themselves  to  their  manner  of  living,  spoke  the 
Greek  language,  but  altogether  mixed  with  Hebraisms 
and  Jewish  forms  of  speech,  (and  this  called  Lingua 
Hellenistiea)    and  used  no   other  bible  but   the  Greek 

c  Ai^l   *>.  i.  il     Joh.  7.  35. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  n 

translation  of  the  Scptnagint.     A  notion  which   Sulma- 
sius'"  has  taken    a   great  deal  of    pains  to   confute,    by 
showing  that  never  any  people   went  under  that  notion 
and  character,  that  the  Jews,  in  what  parts  of  the  world 
soever  they  were,  were  not  a  distinct  nation  from  those 
that  lived  in  Palestine  ;  that  there  never  was  any  such 
peculiar  distinct  Hellenistic   dialect,  nor  any  such  ever 
mentioned   by  any   ancient  writer  ;    that    the  phrase  is 
very  improper  to  express  such  a  mixt  language,  yea  ra- 
thar  that  ' f.,;^. «>•/?-;, c  implies  one  that  expresseth   himself  in 
better  Greek  then  ordinary,  as  ■at7«/s-''c  denotes  one  that 
studies  to  speak  pure  Attic  Greek.     Probable  therefore 
it  is,  that  they  were  not  of  the  Hebrew  race,   but  Greek 
or  Gentile  pioselytes,  who  had  either  themselves,  or  in 
their  ancestors  deserted  the  Pagan  superstitions,  and  im- 
bodied  themselves  into  the  Jewish  church,  taking  upon 
them  circumcision  and  the  observation  of  the  rites  of 
the  Mosaic   laws  (which   kind  the  Jews  call  SIJ  p''iT} 
proselytes  of  justice)  and   were  now  converted  to  Chris- 
titiuity.     That  there  were  at  this  time  great  numbers  of 
these  proselytes  at  Jerusalem,  is  evident ;  and  strange 
it  were,  if  xvhen  at  other  times  they  were    deirous  to 
have  the  gospel  preached  to  them,  none  of  them  should 
have  been  brought  over  to  the  faith.     Even  among  the 
se\  en  made  choice  of  to  be  Deacons  (most,   if  not  all, 
of  whom   we   may   reasonably   conclude  to   have  been 
taken  out  of  these  Grecians)  we  find  one  expressly  said  to 
have  been  a  proselyte  of  Antioch,  as  in  all  likelihood  some, 
if  not  all  the  other,  might  be  proselytes  of  Jerusalem.  And 
thus  wherever  we  meet  with  the  word  "R».iv/r«/,  or  Gre- 
cians, in  the  history  of  the  apostolic  acts  *  (as  it  is  to  be 
met  with  in  two  places  more)  we  may,  and  in  reason  are 
to  understand  it.      So  that  these  Hellenists  (who  spake 
Greek,  and  used  the  translation  of  the  Seventy)  were 
Jews  by  religion,  and  Gentiles  by  descent  ;  with  the 
'K  ;•>..£-,  or  Gentiles,  they  had  the  same  common  original, 
with  the  Jews  the  same  common  profession  ;  and  therefore 

e  Comment,  de   Hrllciist.  Q.u.  1,  2,  .1,  4,  5.  prseclpue  pa^.  232.  Sec.   vid. 
etiam,  intei-  ::li  js,  Bc-z.  Si  Gamer,  in  loc. 
f  Act.  ix.  29.  xi.  20. 


74  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

are  not  here  opposed  to  Jews,  (which  all  those  might  be 
styled,  who  embrace  Judaism  and  the  rites  of  Moses, 
thoui^h  they  were  not  born  of  Jewish  ancestors)  but  to 
the  Hebrews,  who  were  Jews  both  by  their  religion 
and  their  nation.  And  this  may  give  us  some  probable 
account,  why  the  widows  of  these  Hellenists  had  not 
so  much  care  taken  of  them  as  those  of  the  Hebrews, 
the  persons  with  whom  the  apostles  in  a  great  mea- 
sure intrusted  the  ministration,  being  kinder  to  those 
of  their  own  nation,  their  neighbours,  and  it  may  be  kin- 
dred, than  to  those  who  only  agreed  with  them  in  the 
profession  of  the  same  religion,  and  who  indeed  were 
not  generally  so  capable  of  contributing  to  the  church's 
stock  as  the  native  Jews,  who  had  lands  and  possessions, 
which  they  sold  and  laid  at  the  apostles  feet. 

5.  The  peace  and  quiet  of  the  church  being  by  this 
means  a  little  ruffled  and  discomposed,  the  apostles,  who 
M'ell  understood  how  much  order  and  unity  conduced 
to  the  ends  of  religion,  presently  called  the  church  toge- 
ther, and  told  them,  that  the  disposing  of  the  common 
stock,  and  the  daily  providing  for  the  necessities  of  the 
poor,  ho\\ever  convenient  and  necessary,  was  yet  a 
matter  of  too  much  trouble  and  distraction  to  consist 
with  a  faithful  discharge  of  the  other  parts  and  duties  of 
their  office,  and  that  they  did  not  judge  it  fit  and  rea- 
sonable to  neglect  the  one,  that  they  might  attend  the 
other ;  that  therefore  they  should  choose  out  among 
themselves  some  that  were  duly  qualified,  and  present 
them  to  them,  that  they  might  set  them  apart  peculiarly 
to  superintend  this  aft'air,  that  so  themselves  being  freed 
from  these  incumbrances,  might  the  more  freely  and  un- 
interruptedly devote  themselves  to  prayer  and  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  Not  that  the  apostles  thought  the  care 
of  the  poor  an  office  too  much  below  them,  but  that 
this  might  be  discharged  by  other  hands,  and  they,  as 
they  were  obliged,  the  better  attend  upon  things  of  high- 
er importance,  ministeries  more  immediately  serviceable 
to  the  souls  of  men.  This  was  the  first  original  of  dea- 
cons  in  the  Christian  church,  they  were  to  serve  tables, 
that  is,  to  wait  upon  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  to  make 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  75 

daily  provisions  for  their  public  feasts,  to  keep  the 
church's  treasure,  and  to  distribute  to  every  one  accor- 
ding to  their  need.  And  this  admirably  agrees  to  one 
ordinary  notion  of  the  word  ^hKovOr  in  foreign  writers, 
where  it  is  used  for  that  peculiar  servant  who  w^aited  at 
feasts,  whose  office  it  was  to  distribute  the  portions  to 
every  guest,  either  according  to  the  command  of  the 
'Acxir^uKif®-,  the  orderer  of  the  feast,  or  according  to  the 
rule  of  equality,  to  give  every  one  alike. ^  But  though 
it  is  true  this  was  a  main  part  of  the  deacon's  office,  yet 
was  it  not  the  whole.  For  had  this  been  all,  the  apos- 
tles needed  not  to  have  been  so  exact  and  curious  in 
their  choice  of  persons,  seeing  men  of  an  ^ordinary  rank 
and  of  a  very  mean  capacity  might  have  served  the 
turn,  nor  have  used  such  solemn  rites  of  consecration 
to  ordain  them  to  it.  No  question,  therefore,  but  their 
serving  tables  implied  also  their  attendance  at  the  table 
of  the  Lord's  supper.  For  in  those  days  their  Agapae  or 
common  love  feasts,  (whereat  both  rich  and  poor  sat 
down  together)  were  at  the  same  time  with  the  holy 
Eucharist,  and  both  administered  every  day,  so  that 
their  ministration  respected  both  the  one  and  the  other.'' 
And  thus  we  find  it  was  in  the  practice  of  the  church, 
for  so  Justin  Martyr '  tells  us  it  was  in  his  time,  that 
when  the  president  of  the  assembly  had  consecrated  the 
Eucharist,  the  deacons  distributed  the  bread  and  the 
wine  to  all  that  were  present,  and  afterwards  carried  them 
to  those  who  were  necessarilv  absent  from  the  con"Te- 
gation.  Nor  were  they  restrained  to  this  one  particular 
service,  but  were  in  some  cases  allowed  to  preach, 
baptize,  and  absolve  penitents,  especially  where  they 
had  the  peculiar  warrant  and  authority  of  the  bishop  to 
bear  them  out :  nor  need  we  look  far  beyond  the  pre- 

g  MiTgat  KjeSv,  i  le-zy  litdLdtr  ct  ^uxnivoi  TTpi;  xi.m  fjLYihit  fjiySiv.  lAr,  ttv  fjitv  fjrya.- 
>.a,  TOJ  /«  xc,u(<f>i  /itiKpi  Tr^gdLTi^'io'b'oii,  tlyt!  tcriTHf  'st<  iuth.  Lucian.  CLronosoi.  aeu 
de  Lef;-g.  Satumal.  Tom.  2.  p.  823. 

h  Sii  Si  ij  Tx;  AistxovKc  ivla.;  yurngKi'v  IkitS  X^/rs  latlu,  "rdyrn  Tpi-rof  ttSs'IV  dfirma' 
«  >*C  ^^ftudray  X,  TrsTeey  (h.  e.  non  solum.)  fis-iy  A(ax:w<,  a/X'  ly.icMtria.s  0j«  C-rp-i-.ei- 
rtr  oV^,-  ii  aliTui  (^vrJ^TTiibn  Tsi  iyAhyf^itCiX  »;  Tri^.  Ignat.  Epist.  ad.  Trail. 
Append.  Usser. />.  1". 

i  Apul.  ii.  p.  y7. 


78  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

sent  story  to  find  St,  Philip,  one  of  the  deacons  here 
elected,  both  preaching  the  gospel,  and  baptizing  con- 
verts with  great  success. 

6.  That  this  excellent  office  might  be  duly  managed, 
the  apostles  directed  and  enjoined  the  church  to  nomi- 
nate such  persons  as  were  fitted  for  it,  pious  and  good 
men,  men  of  known  honesty  and  integrity,  of  approved 
and  untainted  reputations,  furnished  and  endowed  with 
the  extraordinary  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  wise  and  pru- 
dent men,  who  would  discreetly  discharge  the  trust 
committed  to  them.  The  number  of  these  persons  was 
limited  to  seven,  probably  for  no  other  reason  but  be- 
cause the  apostles  thought  these  sufficient  for  the  busi- 
ness ;  unless  we  will  also  suppose  the  whole  body  of  be- 
lievers to  have  been  disposed  into  seven  several  divisi- 
ons, for  the  more  orderly  and  convenient  managery  of 
their  common  feasts,  and  distributions  to  the  poor, 
and  that  to  each  of  these  a  deacon  was  appointed  to  su- 
perintend and  direct  them  ;  Avithout  further  designing 
any  peculiar  myster}^  which''  some  Vv^oidd  fain  pick  out 
of  it.  However  the  church  thought  good  for  a  long 
time  to  conform  to  this  primitive  institution,  insomuch 
that  the  fa.th;-rs  of  the'  Neo-Ctvsarean  council  ordained, 
that  in  no  city,  how  s*reat  soever,  there  should  be  more 
then  seven  deacons,  a  canon  which  they  found  upon  this 
place  :  and  Sozomen'"  tells  us  that  in  his  time,  thoiigh 
many  other  churches  kept  to  no  certain  number,  yet  that 
the  church  of  Rome,  in  compliance  with  this  apostolical 
example,  admitted  no  more  then  seven  deacons  in  it. 
The  people  were  infinitely  pleased  with  the  order  and 
determination  which  the  apostles  had  made  in  this  mat- 
ter and  accordingly  made  choice  of  seven,  whom  they 
presented  to  the  apostles,  who  (as  the  solemnity  of  the 
thing  required)  first  made  their  address  to  heaven  by 
prayer  for  the  divine  bless;;ig  upon  the  undertaking,  and 
then  laid  iheir  hands  upon  them,  an  ancient  symbolic 
rite  of  investiture  and  consecration  to  any  extraordina- 

k  Vid.  Baron   acl  Ann.  112.  n.  7.  Tom.  2. 

1  Coiic.  Neo-Cies.  can.  15.  Cone.  Tom.  1.  Col.  1484. 

m  Hist.  £cci.  lib.  7.  c.  19.  p.  734. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  1^ 

ry  office.  The  issue  of  all  was,  that  the  Christian  reli- 
gion got  ground  and  pro.spered,  converts  came  flocking 
o\  cr  to  the  faith,  yea  ^•ery  many  of  the  priests  themselves, 
and  of  their  tribe  and  family,  of  all  others  the  most  zea- 
lous and  pertinacious  assertors  of  the  Mosaic  constitu- 
tions, the  bitterest  adversaries  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
the  subtlest  defenders  of  their  religion,  laid  aside  their 
prejudices,  and  embraced  the  gospel.  So  uncontrolla- 
ble is  the  eflicacy  of  divine  truth,  as  very  often  to  lead 
its  greatest  enemies  in  triumph  after  it. 

7.  The  first  and  cliief  of  the  persons  here  elected, 
(who  were  all  chosen  out  of  the  seventy  disciples,  as 
"  Epiphanius  informs  us,)  and  v.hom  the  ancients  fre- 
quently style  arch  deacon,  as  having  the  t*  ^ga7=Tct  (as " 
Chrysostom  speaks)  the  primacy  and  precedence  among 
these  new  elected  officers,  was  our  St.  Stephen,  whom 
the  author  of  the  epistle  to  ^'  Hero  under  the  name  of 
Ignatius,  as  also  the  Interpolator  of  that  to  the  '^  Trallians, 
makes  in  a  more  peculiar  manner  to  have  been  deacon 
to  St,  James,  as  bishop  of  Jerusalem.  He  is  not  only 
placed  first  in  the  catalogue,  but  particularly  recom- 
mended under  this  character,  a  man  full  of  faiths  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  He  was  exquisitely  skilled  in  all  parts 
of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  fitted  with  great  elo- 
quence and  elocution  to  declare  and  publish  it,  enriched 
with  many  miraculous  gifts  and  powers,  and  a  spirit  of 
courage  and  resolution  to  encounter  the  most  potent  op- 
position. He  preached  and  pleaded  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity with  a  firm  and  undaunted  mind,  and  that  nothing 
might  be  wanting  to  render  it  effi[?ctual,  he  confirmed  his 
doctrine  by  many  public  and  unquestionable  miracles, 
plain  evidences  and  dem.onstrations  of  the  truth  and  di- 
vinity of  that  religion  that  he  taught.  But  truth  and 
innocency,  and  a  better  cause,  is  the  usual  object  of  bad 
men's  spite  and  hatred.  The  zeal  and  diligence  of  his 
ministry,  and  the  extraordinary  success  that  did  attend 
it,  quickly  awakened  the  malice  of  the  Jews,  and  there 

n  Hxres.  XX.  p.  27.  o  Homil.  XV.  in  Act.  p.  555. 

p.   Epist.  ad   Heron,  in  Bibl.  PP.  Gr.  Lut.  p.  37. 
q  Ep.  ud  Tiall.  p,  6.  ibid. 


rs  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

wanted  not  those  that  were  ready  to  oppose  and  contra- 
dict him.  So  natural  is  it  for  error  to  rise  up  against 
the  truth,  as  light  and  darkness  mutually  resist  and  ex- 
pel each  other. 

8.  There  were  at  Jerusalem  besides  the  temple,  where 
sacrifices  and  the  more  solemn  parts  of  their  religion 
were  performed,  vast  numbers  of  synagogues  for  prayer 
and  expounding  of  the  laM',  whereof  the  Jews  themselves 
tell  us  there  were  not  less  than  480  in  that  city.  In 
these,  or  at  least  some  apartments  adjoining  to  them, 
there  were  schools  or  colleges  for  the  instruction  and  edu- 
cation of  scholars  in  their  laws  ;  many  whereof  were 
erected  at  the  charges  of  the  Jews  who  lived  in  foreign 
countries,  and  thence  denominated  after  their  names  : 
and  hither  they  were  wont  to  send  their  youth  to  be 
trained  up  in  the  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  the  myste- 
rious rites  of  their  religion.  Of  these,  five  combined  to- 
gether to  send  some  of  their  societies  to  encounter  and 
oppose  St.  Stephen.  An  unequal  match  !  avj;:a.v  «r.^sr*Tar 
nsvTa'TJAK  (as  St.  Chrysostom  calls  if)  a  whole  army  of  wick- 
ed adversaries,  the  chief  of  five  several  synagogues,  are 
brought  ou*  against  one,  and  him  but  a  strippiing  too,  as 
if  they  intcnfied  to  oppress  him  rather  with  the  number  of 
assailants,  than  to  overcome  him  by  strength  of  argu- 
ment. 

9.  The  first  of  them  were  those  of  the  Synagogue  of  the 
Libertines  ;  but  who  these  Libertines  were,  is  variously 
ronjectured.  Passing  by  Junius's  conceit  of  Labra\  sig- 
nifying in  the  Egyptiim  language  the  whole  precinct  that 
was  under  one  synagogue,  whence  Lahratenu^  or  cor- 
ruptly (says  he)  Libertini,  must  denote  them  that  belong- 
ed to  the  Synagogue  of  the  Egyptians,  omitting  this  as 
altogether  absurd  and  fimtastical,  besides  that  the  Syna- 
gogue  of  the  Alexandrians  is  mentioned  afterwards  ;  Sui- 
das  tells  us  it  was  the  name  of  a  nation,'  but  in  what  part 
of  the  world  this  people  or  country  were,  he  leaves  us 
v\  holly  in  the  dark.     Most  probably,  therefore,  it  relates 

»  Orat.in  St.  Steph.Tr.m.  6.  p.  2r6.  s  Jun.  in  loc.  iiTin  Gen.  8.  4. 

t  Suit!  in  voc.  Ai^^-r'n'Sr . 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  79 

to  the  Jews  that  were  emancipated  and  set  at  liberty. 
For  the  understanding  whereof  we  must  know,  that  when 
Pompey  had  subdued  Judea,  and  reduced  it  under  the 
Roman  government,  he  carried  great  numbers  of  Jews 
captive  to  Rome,  as  also  did  those  generals  that  succeed- 
ed him,  and  that  in  such  multitudes,  that  when  the  Jew- 
ish state  sent  an  embassy  to  Augustus,  Josephus"  tells  us, 
that  there  were  about  eight  thousand  of  the  Jews  who 
then  lived  at  Rome,  that  joined  themselves  to  the  ambas- 
sadors at  their  arrival  thither.  Here  they  continued  in 
the  condition  of  slaves,  till  by  degrees  they  were  manu- 
mitted and  set  at  liberty,  which  was  generally  done  in  the 
time  of  Tiberius,  who  (as  Philo  informs ')  suffered  the 
Jews  to  inhabit  the  Transtiberine  region  :  most  whereof 
were  Libertines,  such  who  having  been  made  captives  by 
the  fortune  of  war,  had  been  set  free  by  their  masters, 
and  permitted  to  live  after  the  manner  of  their  ancestors. 
They  had  their  Froscuchas,  or  oratories,  where  they  as- 
sembled, and  performed  their  devotions  according  to  the 
religion  of  their  country  :  every  year  they  sent  a  contri- 
bution instead  of  first-fruits  to  Jerusalem,  and  deputed 
certain  persons  to  offer  sacrifices  for  them  at  the  temple. 
Indeed  afterwards  (as  we  find  in  Tacitus'*  and  Seutonius'') 
by  an  order  of  senate  he  caused  four  thousand  JLiberthn 
generis^  of  those  libertine  Jews,  so  many  as  W'Cre  young 
and  lust}-,  to  be  transported  into  Sardinia,  to  clear  that 
island  of  robbers,  (the  occasion  whereof  is  related  by  Jo- 
sephus*) and  the  rest,  both  Jews  and  proselytes,  to  be 
banished  the  city,  Tacitus  adds,  Italy  itself.  This  oc- 
casion, I  doubt  not,  many  of  these  Libertine-Jews  took 
to  return  home  into  their  own  country,  and  at  Jerusalem 
to  erect  this  synagogue  for  themselves  and  the  use  of  their 
countrymen  who  from  Rome  resorted  thither,  styling  it 
from  themselves,  the  Syiiagi-^ue  of  the  Libei  tines  ;  and 
such,  questionless,  St.  Luke  means,  \vhen  among  the  se- 
veral nations  that  were  at  Jerusalem  at  the  day  of  Pente- 

u  Antiquit.  Jiul.  lib.  17.  c.  12.  p.  610.  v  Piiil.  de  lefrat  act  Gai.p  7^5. 
\v  Tac.  Aiiirii.  lib.  2.  c-  ^o.  p.  83.  x  Sneloa.  in  vlt.  Tib.  c.  oo  p'.  3.14. 
\   Aiiti^i.  1.  Id.  c.  3.  p.  62.'>. 


so  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

cost,  he  mentions  strangers  of  Rome,  and  they  both  Jews 
and  proselytes. 

10.  The  next  antagonists  were  cf  the  Sy?iagogue  of 
the  Cyren'ians,  that  is,  Je^vs  who  inhabited  Cyrene,  a  no- 
ted city  of  Libya,  where  (as  appears  from  a  rescript  of 
Augustus^)  great  numbers  of  them  did  reside,  and  who 
were  annually  wont  to  send  their  holy  treasure  or  accus- 
tomed offerings  to  Jerusalem,  where  also  (as  we  see)  they 
had  their  peculiar  synagogue.  Accordingly  we  find 
among  the  several  nations  at  Jerusalem,  those  who  dwelt 
in  the  parts  of  Libya  about  Cyrene.^  Thus  we  read  of  Si- 
mon of  Cyrene.,  whom  the  Jews  compelled  to  bear  our 
Saviour's  cross  :  of  Lucius  of  Cyrene^  a  famous  doctor 
in  the  church  of  Antioch  ;  of  men  of  Cyrene.,  who  upon 
the  persecution  that  followed  St.  Stephen's  death,  were 
scattered  abroad  from  Jerusalem,  and  preached  as  far  as 
Phoenwe,  Cyprus,  and  Ant'iocli.  The  third  were  those  of 
the  Synagogue  of  the  Alexandrians,  there  being  a  mighty 
intercourse  between  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  and  Alexan- 
dria, where  what  vast  multitudes  of  them  dwelt,  and  what 
great  privileges  they  enjoyed,  is  too  well  known  to  need 
insisting  on.  The  fourth  were  them  of  Cilicia,  a  known 
province  of  the  lesser  Asia,  the  metropolis  whereof  was 
Tarsus,  well  stored  with  Jevv's  ;  it  was  St.  Paul's  birth- 
phice,  whom  we  cannot  doubt  to  have  born  a  principal 
part  among  these  assailants,  finding  him  afterwurds  so 
active  and  busy  in  St.  Stephen's  death.  The  last  were 
those  of  the  Synagogue  of  Asia  :  where  by  Asivl  we  are 
probably  to  undervStand  no  more  than  part  of  Asia  proper- 
ly so  called  (as  that  was  but  part  of  Asia  minor)  viz. 
that  part  that  lay  near  to  Ephesus,  in  which  sense  it 
is  plain  Asia  is  to  be  taken  in  the  New  Testament.  And 
what  infinite  numbers  of  Jews  were  in  these  parts,  and 
especially  at  Ephesus,  the  history  of  the  Apostles'  acts 
does  sufficiently  inform  us. 

1 J .  These  were  the  several  parties  that  were  to  take 
the  field,  persons  of  very  diilerLnt  countries,  men  skilled 

z  Ap.  Joseph.  Antiq.Jud  Lib.  16  c   10.  p,  5("1.         a   .Act.ii.  10. 
b   Act.  xiii.  1.  xi.  15,20. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  81 

m  the  subtleties  of  their  religion,  who  all  at  once  rose  up 
to  dispute  with  Stephen.     What  the  particular  subject  of 
the  disputation  was,  we  find  not,  but  may  with  St.  Chry- 
sostom  conceive  them"  to  have  accosted  him  after  this 
manner.      "  Tell  us,  young  man,    what  comes  into  thy 
*'  mind  thus  rashly  to  reproach  the  Deity  ?     Why  dost 
"  thou  study  with  such  cunningly  contrived  discourses 
"  to  inveigle  and  persuade  the  people  ?  and  with  deceit- 
*•  ful  miracles  to  undo  the  nation'?      Here  lies  the  crisis 
"  of  the  controversy.       Is  it  likely  that  he  should    be 
"  God  who  was  born  of  Mary  '?  that  the  Maker  of  the 
"  world  should   be  the  son  of  a  carpenter  ?      Was  not 
"  Bethlehem  the  place  of  his  nativity,  and  Nazareth  of 
*'  his  education  ?     Canst  thou  imagine  him  to  be   God, 
"  that  was  born  upon  earth  ?    who  was  so  poor  that  he 
"  was  wrapt  lip  in  swaddling  clothes  and  thrown  into  a 
"  manger  '?  who  was  forced  to  fly  from  the  rage  of  Herod, 
*'  and  to  wash  away  his  pollution   by  being  baptized  in 
*'  Jordim  ?    who   was  subject  to  hunger  and  thirst,  to 
"  sleep  and    weariness  "?  who     being    bound   was    not 
*'  able  to  escape,  nor,  being  buffeted,  to   rescue  or  re- 
*'  venge  himself?    who    when  he  was    hanged,    could 
*'  not   come  down  from   the    cross,    but   underwent  a 
"  cursed  and  a  shameful  death  ?    Wilt  thou  make  us  be- 
*'  lieve  that  he  is  in  heaven,  whom  we  know  to  have  been 
*'  buried  in  his  grave  ?  that  he  should  be  the  life  of  the 
*'  dead,  who  is  so  near  a  kin  to  mortality  himself"?     Is  it 
"  likely  that  God  should   suffer   such  things  as  these  '? 
*'  would  he  not  rather  with  an  angry  breath  have  struck 
"  his  adversaries  dead  at  the  first  approach,  and  set  them 
*'  beyond  the   reach  of  making  attempts   upon  his  own 
"  person  ?     Either  cease,  therefore,  to  delude  the  people 
"  with  these  impostures,   or  prepare  thyself  to  undergo 
"  the  same  fate. 

12.  In  answer  to  which  we  may  imagine  St.  Stephen 
thus  to  have  replied  upon  them.  "  And  why,  Sirs, 
*■'  should  these  things  seem  so  incredible  ?  have  you  not 
*'  by  you  the  writings  of  the  prophets  ?  do  you  not  read 

c  Loc.  supra  citat. 
L 


8^  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

*'  the  books  of  Moses,  and  profess  yourselves  to  be  his 
"  disciples?  did  not  Moses  say,  a  prophet  shall  the  Lord 
"  your  God  raise  up  unto  you  of  your  brethren,  like  unto 
*'  jne,  him  shall  ye  hear  ?  Have  not  the  prophets  long 
"  since  foretold  that  he  should  be  born  at  Bethlehem,  and 
"  conceived  in  the  womb  of  a  virgin  ?  that  he  should  fly 
"  into  Egypt,  that  he  should  hear  our  griejs  and  carry 
"  our  sorroxvs  F  that  they  should  pierce  his  hafids  and  his 
''''feet,  and  hang  him  on  a  tree  ?  that  he  should  be  buri- 
*'  ed,  rise  again,  and  ascend  up  to  heaven  with  a  shout  ? 
"  Either  now  show  me  some  other  in  whom  all  these 
"  prophecies  were  accomplished,  or  learn  with  me  to 
"  adore  as  God  our  crucified  Saviour.  BHnd  and  igno- 
"  rant  that  you  are  of  the  predictions  of  Moses,  you 
*'  thought  you  crucified  a  mere  man,  but  had  you  known 
"  him,  you  Vv'ould  not  have  crucified  the  Lord  of  Glory  : 
"  you  denied  the  Holy  One  and  the  Just,  and  desired  a 
*'  murderer  to  be  granted  to  you,  but  put  to  death  the 
"  Prince  of  Life. 

13.  This  is  the  sum  of  what  that  ingenious  and  elo- 
quent father  conceives  St.  Stephen  did,  or  might  ha\  c 
returned  to  their  inquiries.  Which,  whatever  it  was, 
was  delivered  with  that  life  and  zeal,  that  evidence  and 
strength  of  reason,  that  freedom  and  majesty  of  elocution, 
that  his  antagonists  had  not  one  word  to  say  against  it ; 
they  were  not  able  to  resist  the  zvisdom  and  the  spirit  by 
which  he  spake.  So  particularly  did  our  Lord  make 
good  what  he  had  promised  to  his  disciples,*^  settle  it  in 
your  hearts,  not  to  meditate  before  what  you  shall ansrver, 
for  I  will  give  you  a  mouth  and  tvisdom,  which  all  your 
adversaries  shall  not  be  able  to  gainsay  nor  resist.  Here- 
upon the  men  presently  began  to  retreat,  and  departed 
the  lists,  equally  divided  between  shame  and  grief. 
Ashamed  they  were  to  be  so  openly  baffled  by  one  single 
adversarj-,  vexed  and  troubled  that  they  had  not  carried 
the  day,  and  that  the  religion  which  they  opposed  had 
hereby  received  such  signal  credit  and  confirmation. 
And  now  being  no  longer  able  *!'7-tSj  ,m:;i  T^aAxSj/a  (as  the 

d  Luke  xx\.  14,  Ij. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  83 

addition  in  some  very  ancient  manuscript  copies  does 
elegantly  express  it)  xvith  open  face  to  resist  the  trutli^ 
they  betake  themselves  to  clancular  arts,  to  sly  and  sinis- 
ter designs,  hoping  to  accomplish  by  craft  and  subtlety 
what  they  could  not  carry  by  fairness  and  force  of  reason. 
14.  To  this  purpose  they  tamper  with  men  of  debauch- 
ed profligate  consciences,  to  undermine  him  by  false 
accusations,  that  so  he  might  fall  as  a  sacrifice  to  their 
spite  and  malice,  and  that  by  the  hand  of  public  justice. 
St.  Chrysostom'  brings  them  in  with  smooth  and  plausi- 
l:)le  insinuations,  encouraging  the  men  to  this  mischiev- 
ous attempt.  "  Come  on,  worthy  and  honourable  friends, 
"  lend  your  assistance  to  our  declining  cause,  and  let 
"  vour  touQ-ues  minister  to  our  counsels  and  contrivan- 
"  ces.  Behold  a  new  patron  and  advocate  of  the  Gali- 
"  LEAN  is  started  up  :  one  that  worships  a  God  that  was 
"  buried,  and  preaches  a  Creator  shut  up  in  a  tomb  ; 
*'  who  thinks  that  he  whom  the  soldiers  despised  and 
''■  mocked  upon  earth,  is  now  conversing  with  the  host 
*'  of  angels  in  heaven,  and  promises  that  he  shall  come 
*'  to  judge  the  world,  who  was  not  able  to  vindicate  and 
"  right  himself  :  His  disciples  denied  liim,  as  if  they 
"  thought  him  an  impostor,  and  yet  this  man  affirms  that 
"  ever}-  tongue  shall  confess  and  do  homage  to  him  : 
"  himself  was  not  able  to  come  down  from  the  cross,  and 
''  yet  he  talks  of  his  second  coming  from  heaven  :  the 
"  vilest  miscreants  reproached  him  at  his  death,  that  he 
"  could  not  save  either  himself  or  them,  and  yet  this  man 
"  peremptorily  proclaims  him  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the 
*■'  world.  Did  you  ever  behold  such  boldness  and  im- 
"  pudence  ?  or  have  you  ever  heard  words  of  so  much 
"  madness  and  blasphemy  '?  Do  you,  therefore,  under- 
"  take  the  cause,  and  find  out  some  specious  colour  and 
"  pretence,  and  thereby  purchase  to  yourselves  glory 
''  and  renown  from  the  present  generation. 

15.  The  wretches  were  easily  persuaded  to  the  under- 
taking, and  to  swear  \\hatever  their  tutors  should  direct 
them.     And  now  the  cause  is  ripe  for  action,  the  case  is 

e  Cod.  BezK.  MS.  is"  2  Codd.  H.  Sieph,        f  Ubi.  supra,  pag.  2r8. 


84  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

divulged,  the  elders  and  the  scribes  are  dealt  with  (and 
a  little  rhetoric  would  serve  to  persuade  them)  the  peo- 
ple possessed  with  the  horror  of  the  fact,  the  Sanhedrim 
is  summoned,  the  malefactor  haled  to  the  bar,  the 
witnesses  produced,  and  the  charge  given  in.  They 
suborned  men  which  said,  ive  have  heard  him  speak  blas- 
phemous words  against  Moses  and  against  God  ;  the  false 
witnesses  said,  this  man  ceaseth  ?70t  to  speak  blas- 
phemous words  against  this  holy  place  o7ul  the  law ; 
Jo  we  have  heard  him  say^  that  this  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth shall  destroy  this  place,  and  shall  change  the  cus- 
toms which  Moses  delivered  us  :  that  is  (that  we  may 
still  proceed  with  that  excellent  man  in  opening  the  se- 
veral parts  of  the  charge)  "  he  has  dared  to  speak 
*'  against  our  wise  and  great  lawgiver,  and  blasphemed 
"  that  Moses  for  whom  our  whole  nation  has  so  just  a 
*'  veneration  ;  that  Moses  who  had  the  whole  creation  at 
*'  his  beck,  who  freed  our  ancestors  from  the  house  of 
*'  bondage,  and  with  his  rod  turned  the  waters  into 
*'  walls,  and  bv  his  prayer  drowned  the  Egyptian  army 
*'  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea  ;  who  kindled  a  fiery  pillar  for 
**  a  light  by  night,  and  without  plowing  or  sowing,  fed 
*'  them  with  manna  and  bread  from  heaven,  and  with  his 
"  rod  pierced  the  rock  and  gave  them  drink.  But  what 
*'  do  we  speak  of  Moses,  when  he  has  whetted  his  tongue 
**  and  stretched  it  out  against  God  himself,  and  set  up 
**  one  that  is  dead  as  an  Anti-God  to  the  great  Creator  of 
"  of  the  world  ?  He  has  not  blushed  to  reproach  the  tem- 
"  pie,  that  holy  place,  where  the  Divine  oracles  arc 
"  read,  and  the  writings  of  the  prophets  set  forth,  the 
"  repository  of  the  shew-brcad  and  the  heavenly  manna, 
**  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  the  rod  of  Aaron  ;  where 
**  the  hoary  and  venerable  heads  of  the  high-priests,  the 
*'  dignity  of  the  elders,  and  the  honour  of  the  scribes  is 
**  seen  :  this  is  the  place  which  he  has  reviled  and  set 
'*  at  naught  ;  and  not  this  only,  but  the  law  itself,  which 
"  he  boldly  declares  to  be  but  a  shadow,  and  the  ancient 
*'  rites  but  types  and  figures.  He  affirms  the  Galilean 
"  to  be  greater  than  Moses,  and  the  son  of  Mary  strong- 
**  er  than  our  law  giver  :  he  has  not  honoured  the  digni- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  85 

"  tv  of  the  elders,  nor  had  any  reverence  to  the  society 
*'  of  the  scribes.  He  threatens  us  with  a  dead  master  ; 
*'  the  young  man  dreams  sure,  when  he  talks  of  Jesus  of 
*'  Nazareth  rising  again,  and  destroying  this  holy  place  : 
*'  he  little  considers  with  how  much  wisdom  it  was 
*'  contrived,  with  what  infinite  charges  it  was  erected, 
"  and  how  long  before  it  was  brought  to  its  perfection. 
*'  And  yet,  forsooth,  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth  must  destroy 
*'  it  and  change  the  customs  which  Moses  delivered  to  us  : 
*'  our  most  holy  Sabbath  must  be  turned  out  of  doors, 
*'  circumcision  abolished,  the  new-moons  rejected,  and 
*'  the  feast  of  tabernacles  laid  aside  ;  our  sacrifices  must 
"  no  longer  be  accepted  with  God  ;  our  sprinklings  and 
**  solemn  purgations  must  be  done  away  :  as  if  we  knew 
*'  not  this  Nazarene's  end,  and  as  if  one  that  is  dead  could 
*'  revenge  himself  upon  them  that  are  living.  Howma- 
"  ny  of  the  ancient  prophets  and  holy  men  have  been  cru- 
*'  elly  murdered,  whose  death  none  ever  yet  undertook 
**  to  revenge  ?  and  yet  this  man  must  needs  appear  in  the 
*'  cause  of  this  crucified  Nazarene,  and  tell  us  of  a  dead 
*'  man  that  shall  judge  us.  Silly  impostor!  to  fright  us 
*'  with  a  Judge  who  is  himself  imprisoned  in  his  own 
*'  grave. 

16.  This,  then,  is  the  sum  of  the  charge,  that  he 
should  threaten  the  ruin  of  the  temple,  and  the  abolition 
of  the  Mosaic  rites,  and  blaspemously  aifirm  that  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  should  take  away  that  religion  which  had 
been  established  by  Moses,  and  by  God  himself.  In- 
deed, the  Jews  had  an  unmeasurable  reverence  and  ve- 
neration for  the  Mosaic  institutions,  and  could  not  with 
any  patience  endure  to  hear  of  their  being  laid  aside,  but 
accounted  it  a  kind  of  blasphemy  so  much  as  to  men- 
tion their  dissolution  ;  little  thinking  in  how  short  a 
time  these  things  which  they  now  so  highly  valued 
should  be  taken  away,  and  their  temple  itself  laid  level 
with  the  ground ;  which  a  few  years  after'  came  to 
pass,  by  the  Roman  army  under  the  conduct  of  Titus 
Vespasian,  the  Roman  general,  when  the  city  was  sack- 
ed, and  the  temple  burnt  to  the  ground.  And  so  final 
and  irrevocable  was  the  sentence  bv  which  it  was  doom- 


86  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

ed  to  ruin,  that  it  could  never  afterwards  be  repaired, 
heaven  itself  immediately  declaring  against  it.  Inso- 
much diat  when  Julian,  the  emperor,  out  of  spite  and  op- 
position to  the  Christians,  was  resolved  to  give  all-pos- 
sible encouragement  to  the  Jews,  and  not  only  permit- 
ted but  commanded  them  to  rebuild  the  temple,  furnish- 
ing them  with  all  charges  and  materials  necesary  for  the 
work  (hoping  that  hereby  he  should  prove  our  Saviour 
a  false  prophet)  no  sooner  had  they  begun  to  clear  the 
rubbish,  and  lay  the  foundation,  but  a  terrible  earthquake 
shattered  the  foundation,  killed  the  undertakers,  and 
shaked  down  all  the  buildings  that  were  round  about  it. 
And  when  they  again  attempted  it  the  next  day,  great 
balls  of  fire  suddenly  breaking  out  from  under  the  foun- 
dations, consumed  the  workmen  and  those  that  were  near 
it  and  forced  them  to  give  over  the  attempt.  A  strange 
instance  of  the  displeasure  of  heaven  towards  a  place 
which  God  had  Fatally  devoted  to  destruction.  And  this 
related  not  only  by  Christian  writers  ^,  but  as  to  the  sub- 
stance of  it,  by  the  ^  Heathen  historian  himself.  And 
the  same  curse  has  ever  since  pursued  and  followed 
them,  they  having  been  destitute  of  temple  and  sacrifice 
for  sixteen  hundred  years  together.  "  Were  that  bloo- 
-'  dy  Sanhedrim  now  in  being,  and  here  present,  (says 
*'  one  of  the '  ancients,  speaking  of  this  accusation)  I 
*'  would  ask  them  about  those  things  for  which  they 
"  were  here  so  much  concerned  ;  what  is  now  become  of 
"  your  once  famous  and  renowned  temple  ?  where  are 
^^  those  vast  stones,  and  incredible  piles  of  building  ? 
"  where  is  that  gold  that  once  equalled  all  the  other 
*'  materials  of  the  temple  ?  what  are  become  of  your 
-*  legal  sacrifices "?  your  rams  and  calves,  your  lambs 
-'  and  heifers,  pigeons,  turtles,  .and  scape-goats  ?  If 
*'  they,  therefore,  condemned  Stephen  to  die,  that  none 
"  of  these  miseries  might  befall  them,  let  them  show 
*'  which  of  them  they  avoided  by  putting  him  to  death  ; 

g  Socrat.  H.  Ecc.  1.  3.  c.  20.  p.  193.  Sozom.  H.  E.  1.  5.  c.  22.  p.  631. 

h  A.  Marcell.  1.  23.  non  Uiiige  ab  init. 

i  Grc^.  Nysicn,  Oral,  in  S.  Stcph.  To:n,  2.  p.  791. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  87 

"  but  if  they  escaped  none  of  them,  why  then  did  they 
*'  imbrue  their  hands  in  his  innocent  blood '?" 

17.  The  court  being  thus  set,  and  the  charge  brought 
in  and  opened,  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  carry 
on  their  mock  scene  of  justice,  they  give  him  liberty  to 
defend  himself.     In  order  whereunto  while  the  judges 
of  the  Sanhedrim  earnestly  looked  upon  him,  they  disco- 
vered the   appearances    of  an  extraordinary   splendour 
and  brightness  upon  his  face,  the  innocency  of  his  cause, 
and  the  clearness  of  his  conscience  manifesting  them- 
selves in  the  brightness  and  chearfulness  of  his  coun- 
tenance.    The  high-priest  having  asked  him   whether 
guilty  or  not,  he  in  a  large  discourse  pleaded  his  own 
cause  to  this  effect :   "  That  what  apprehensions  soever 
"  they  might  have  of  the  stateliness  and  magnificence  of 
"  their  temple,  of  the  glory  and  grandeur  of  its  services 
*'  and   ministrations,    of  those    venerable  customs  and 
"  usages  that  were  amongst  them,  as  if  they  looked  upon 
"  them  as  indispensably  necessary,  and  that  it  was  blas- 
*'  phemy  to  think  God  might  be  acceptably  served  with- 
"  out  them;  yet  that  if  they  looked  back  to  the  first  ori- 
*'  ginals  of  their  nation,  they  would  find,  that  God  chose 
*'  Abraham  to  be  the  father  and  founder  of  it,  not  when 
"  he  lived  in   a  Jerusalem,   and  worshipped   God  with 
"  the  pompous  services  of  a  temple,  but  when  he  dwelt 
"  among  the  idolatrous  nations :   that  then  it  was  that 
"  God  called  him  from  the  impieties  of  his  fether's  house, 
"  and  admitted  him  to  a  familiar  acquaintance  and  in- 
"  tercourse    with  himself;    wherein   he    continued  for 
"  many  years  without  any  of  those  external  and  visible 
"  rites  which  they  laid  so  much  stress  upon  ;  and   that 
*'  when  at  last  God  entered  into  covenant  with  him,  to 
"  give  his  posterity  the  land  of  Canaan,  -and  that   in  his 
*'  seed  aJl  the  nations  of  the   earth  should  be  blessed^  he 
"  bound  it  upon  him  with  no  other  ceremony,  but  only 
"  that  of  circumcision,   as  the  badge  and  seal  of  that 
"  federal  compact  that  was  between  them  :    that  without 
"  any  other  fixed  rite  but  this,  the  succeeding  patriarchs 
"  worshipped  God  for  several   ages,    till  the   times  of 
''•  jNIoses,  a  wise,  leanied,  and  prudent  person,  to  v.jiom 


88  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

"  God  particularly  revealed  himself,  and  appointed  him 
"  ruler   over  his  people,    to  conduct  them  out  of  the 
"  house  of  bondage,  a  great  and  famous  prophet,  and 
"  who  was  continually  inculcating  this   lesson  to  their 
*'  ancestors,  A  prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  God  raise  up 
*'  imto  you  of  your  brethren  like  unto  me^    him  shall  ye 
*'  hear  ;  that  is,  that  God  in  the  latter  days  would  send 
*'  amongst  them  a  mighty  prophet,   who   should   do  as 
"  Moses  had  done,  introduce  new  rites,  and  set  up  more 
"  excellent  institutions  and  ways  of  worship,  to  w^hom 
"  they   should  yield   all  diligent   attention,  and   ready 
"  obedience  :  that  when  their  fore-fathers  had  frequent- 
"  ly  lapsed  into  idolatry,  God  commanded  Moses  to  set 
**  up  a  tabernacle,  as  a  place  of  public  and  solemn  wor- 
**  ship,  where  he  would  manifest  himself,  and  receive  the 
*'  addresses  and  adorations   of  his   people ;   w^hich   yet 
*'  however  was  but  a  transient  and  temporary  ministra- 
"  tion,  and  though  erected  by  the  immediate  order  of 
"  God  himself,  was  yet  after  some  years  to  give  place 
*'  to  a  standing  temple  designed  by  David,  but  built  by 
^'  Solomon  ;   stately  indeed  and  majestic,   but  not  abso- 
*'  lutely  necessary,  seeing  that  infinite  Being  that  made  the 
*'  world,  who  had  the  heaven  for  his  throne^  and  the  earth 
^''  for  his  footstool,  could  not  be  confined  Avithin  a  mate- 
*'  rial  temple,  nor  tied  to  any  particular  way  of  worship  ; 
"  and  that  therefore  there  could  be  no  such  absolute  and 
*'  indispensable  necessity  for  those   Mosaical   rites  and 
*'  ceremonies,  as  they  pretended;   especially  when  God 
"  was  resolved  to  introduce  a  new  and  better  scene  and 
*'  state  of  things.     But  it  was  the  humour  of  this  loose 
"  and  unruly,  this   refractory  and  undisciplinable  gcne- 
*'  ration  (as  it  ever  had  been  of  their  ancestors)  to  resist 
"  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  oppose  him  in  all  those  methods, 
*'  whereby  he  sought  to  reform  and  reclaim  them ;    that 
*'  there  were  few  of  the  prophets  whom  their  fore-fathers 
'*  had  not  persecuted,  and  slain  them  that  had  foretold 
*'  the  Messiah's  coming,  the  Just  and  the  holy  Jesus,  as 
"  they  their  unhappy  posterity  had  actualh'  betrayed  and 
"  murdered  him,  without  any  due  reverence  and  regard 
*'  to  that  hnv  which  had  been  solemnly  delivered  to  them 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  89 

**  by  the  ministry  of  angels,  and  which  he  came  to  fulfil 
"  and  perfect. 

18.  The  holy  man  was  going  on  in  the  application, 
when  the  patience  of  his  auditors,  which  had  hitherto 
holden  out,  at  this  began  to  fail ;  that  fire  which  gently 
warms  at  a  distance,  scorches  when  it  comes  too  neai'  ; 
their  consciences  being  sensibly  stung  by  the  too  near 
approach  of  the  truths  he  delivered,  they  began  to  fume 
and  fret,  and  express  all  the  signs  of  rage  and  fury.  But 
he,  regardless  of  what  was  done  below,  had  his  eyes  and 
thoughts  directed  to  a  higher  and  a  nobler  object,  and 
looking  up,  saw  the  heavens  opened,  and  some  bright  and 
sensible  appearances  of  the  Divine  Majesty,  and  the  holy 
Jesus  clothed  in  the  robes  of  our  glorified  nature,  not  sit- 
ting (in  which  sense  he  is  usually  described  in  scripture) 
but  standing  (as  ready  to  protect  and  help,  to  crown  and 
reward  his  suffering  servant)  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
So  easily  can  Hea^ven  delight  and  entertain  us  in  the  want 
of  all  earthly  comforts,  and  divine  consolations  are  then 
nearest  to  us,  when  human  assistances  are  furthest  from 
us.  The  good  man  was  infinitely  ravished  with  the  vi- 
sion, and  it  inspired  his  soul  with  a  fresh  zeal  and  courage, 
and  made  him  long  to  arrive  at  that  happy  place,  and  lit- 
tle concerned  what  use  they  would  make  of  it,  he  could 
not  but  communicate  and  impart  his  happiness  ;  the  cup 
was  full,  and  it  easily  overflowed  ;  he  tells  his  adversaries 
\vhat  himself  beheld.  Behold,  I  see  the  heavens  opened,  and 
the  Son  of  man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God. 

19.  The  heavenly  vision  had  very  different  effects  :  it 
encouraged  Stephen,  but  enraged  the  Jews,  who  now- 
taking  It  pro  confesso  that  he  was  a  blasphemer,  resolved 
upon  his  death,  without  any  further  process.  How  furi- 
ous and  impatient  is  misguided  zeal !  they  did  not  stand 
to  procure  a  warrant  from  the  Roman  governor  (without 
whose  leave  they  had  not  power  to  put  any  man  to  death) 
nay,  they  had  not  the  patience  to  stay  for  the  judicial  sen- 
tence of  the  Sanhedrim,  but  acted  the  part  of  zealots, 
(who  were  wont  to  execute  vengeance  upon  capital  of- 
fenders, without  staying  for  the  ordinary  formalities  of 
justice)  and  raising  a  great  noise  and  clamour,  and  stop- 

M 


90  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

ping  their  ears^  that  they  might  hear  no  further  blasphe- 
mies, and  be  deaf  to  all  cries  lor  mercy,  they  unanimous- 
ly rushed  upon  him.  But  zeal  is  superstitious  in  its 
maddest  fm-y  :  they  would  not  execute  him  within  the 
Avails,  lest  they  should  pollute  the  holy  city  with  his  blood, 
but  hurried  him  without  the  city,  and  there  fell  upon  him 
with  a  shower  of  stones.  Stoning  was  one  of  the  four 
capital  punishments  among  the  Jews,  inflicted  upon 
greater  and  more  enormous  crimes,  especially  blasphem}", 
idolatry,  and  strange  worship  :  and  the  Jews'*  tell  us  of 
many  particular  circumstances  used  in  this  sort  of  punish- 
ment. The  malefactor  Avas  to  be  led  out  of  the  consisto- 
ry, at  the  door  whereof  a  person  was  to  stand  with  a  nap- 
kin in  his  hand,  and  a  man  on  horse  back  at  some  dis- 
tance from  him,  that  if  any  one  came  and  said,  he  had 
something  to  offer  for  the  deliverance  of  the  malefactor, 
upon  the  moving  of  the  napkin  the  horseman  might  give 
notice,  and  bring  the  offender  back.  He  had  two  grave 
persons  to  go  along  with  him,  to  exhort  him  to  confes- 
sion by  the  way  ;  a  crier  went  before  him,  proclaiming 
who  he  v.'as,  what  his  crime,  and  who  the  witnesses  :  be- 
ing come  near  the  place  of  execution  (Avhich  was  two  cu- 
bits from  the  ground)  he  was  first  stripped,  and  then 
stoned,  and  afterwards  hanged,  where  he  was  to  continue 
till  sun-set,  and  then  being  taken  down,  he  and  his  gib- 
bet were  both  buried  together. 

20.  Such  were  their  customs  in  ordinary  cases,  but, 
alas,  their  greediness  of  St.  Stephen's  blood  would  not 
admit  tliese  tedious  proceedings  ;  only  one  formality  we 
find  them  using,  which  the  law  required,  Avhich  was,  that 
the  hauils  of  the  ivitnesses  should  be  first  upon  him,  to  put 
him  to  death,  and  afterward  the  hands  of  all  the  people^ :  a 
law  surely  contrived  with  great  wisdom  and  prudence, 
that  so  the  -witness,  if  forsworn,  might  derive  the  guilt  of 
the  blood  upon  himself,  and  the  rest  be  free  ;  so  thou  shalt 
put  the  evil  aivay  from  among  you.  According! v  here 
iht  w'ltn^'^siis  putting  off  their  upper  garments  (which 
rendered  them  less  nimble  and  expedite,  being  loose  and 

k  Vid.  P.  Fag.  in  Exod.  xxi.  16.         I  Deut,  xvii.  7. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  91 

lonj^,  according  to  the  mode  of  those  eastern  countries) 
laid  them  down  at  Saul's  feet,  a  zealous  youth,  at  that 
time  student  under  Gamaliel,  the  fiery  zeal  and  activity 
of  whose  temper  made  him  busy  no  doubt  in  this,  as  we 
find  he  was  in  the  following  persecution.  An  action 
which  afterwards  cost  him  tears  and  penitent  reflections, 
himself  preferring  the  indictment  against  himself ;  when 
the  blood  of  thy  martyr  Stephen  was  shed^  I  also  rvas  stall- 
ing by,  and  consenting  unto  his  deaths  and  kept  the  rai- 
ment of  them  that  slew  him.°^  Thus  prepared  they  began 
the  tragedy,  whose  example  was  soon  followed  by  the 
multitude.  All  which  time  the  innocent  and  holy  man 
M'as  upon  his  knees,  sending  up  his  prayers  faster  to  hea- 
ven than  thev  could  rain  down  stones  upon  him,  piously 
recommending  his  own  soul  to  God,  and  charitably  in- 
terceding for  his  murderers,  that  God  would  not  charge 
this  guilt  upon  them,  nor  severely  reckon  with  them  for 
it  ;  and  then  gave  up  the  ghost,  or  as  the  sacred  histori- 
an elegantlv  expresses  \X,  fell  asleep.  So  soft  a  pillow  is 
death  to  a  good  man  ;  so  willingly,  so  quietly  does  he 
leave  the  world,  as  a  weary  labourer  goes  to  bed  at  night. 
What  storms  or  tempests  soever  may  follow  him  while 
he  lives,  his  sun,  in  spite  of  all  the  malice  and  cruelty  of 
his  enemies,  sets  serene  and  calm.  Mark  the  perfect  and 
behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace. 

21.  Thus  died  St.  Stephen,  the  protomartyr  of  the 
Christian  faith,  obtaining  tcv  I'jtv  zig^irju^i  stsosi/:-,  (says  E,u- 
sebius")  a  reward  truly  answering  to  his  name,  a  ckowx. 
He  was  a  man  in  whom  the  virtues  of  a  divine  life  were 
verv  eminent  and  illustrious  ;  a  man  full  of  faith  and  of 
the  holy  ghost.  Admirable  his  zeal  for  God  and  for  re- 
ligion, for  the  propagating  whereof  he  refused  no  pains, 
declined  no  troubles  or  difficulties  :  his  courage  was  not 
baffled  either  with  the  angry  fronns,  or  the  fierce  threat- 
enings  of  his  enemies,  nor  did  his  spirit  sink,  though  he 
stood  alone,  and  had  neither  friend  nor  kinsman  to  assist 
and  comfort  him  ;  his  constancy  firm  and  luishaken,  not- 
withstanding temptations  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  dan- 
gers that  assaulted  him  on  the  other  :   in  all   the  opposi- 

m  Acts  xxii.  20.  n  H .  Eccl.  1.  2.  c.  1.  p.  33. 


92  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

tions  that  he  met  with,  under  all  the  torments  and  suffer- 
ings that  he  underwent,  he  discovered  nothing  but  the 
meek  and  innocent  temper  of  a  lamb,  never  betraying  one 
passionate  and  revengeful  word,  but  calmly  resigned  up 
his  soul  to  God.  He  had  a  charity  large  enough  to 
cover  the  highest  affronts,  and  the  greatest  wrongs  and 
injuries  that  were  put  upon  him;  and  accordingly  after 
the  example  of  his  master,  he  prayed  for  the  pardon  of 
his  murderers,  even  while  they  were  raking  in  his  blood''. 
And  the  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  the  ?'ighteoits  man 
availed  much;  Heaven  was  not  deaf  to  his  petition,  as 
appeared  in  the  speedy  conversion  of  St.  Paul,  whose 
admirable  change  we  may  reasonably  suppose  to  have 
been  the  birth  of  the  good  man's  dying  groans,  the  fruit 
of  his  prayer  and  interest  in  Heaven.  And  what  set  off 
all  these  excellencies,  he  was  not  elated  with  lofty  and 
arrogant  conceits,  nor  thought  more  highly  of  himself 
than  he  ought  to  thinks  esteeming  meanly  of,  and  prefer- 
ring others  before  himself.  And  therefore  the  author 
of  the  Apostolic^  Constitutions  brings  in  the  apostles 
commending  St.  Stephen  for  his  humility,  that  though 
he  was  so  great  a  person,  and  honoured  with  such  sin- 
gular and  extraordinary  visions  and  revelations,  yet 
never  attempted  any  thing  above  his  place,  did  not  con- 
secrate the  Eucharist,  nor  confer  orders  upon  any ;  but 
(as  became  a  martyr  of  Christ  t«v  \v']iii'vi  drtocru^nv,  to  preserve 
order  and  decency)  he  contented  himself  with  the  station 
of  a  deacon,  wherein  he  persevered  to  the  last  minute  of 
his  life. 

:22.  His  martyrdom  happened  (say  some)  three  years 
after  our  Saviour's  passion,  which  Euodius,  bishop  of  An- 
tioch  (if  that  epistle  were  his  cited  by  ''Nicephorus,  which 


o  Epfo  sum  Jesus  N.izarenus,  quern  tu  persequeris.  Qiiid  mihi  &  tibi  ?  Qviare 
te  erig-is  contra  me,  .id  tauta  mala  cjuze  commisisti  in  me  ?  Olim  quidem  dtbui 
pevilere  tc.sed  Stephanas  mens  oravit  pro  te.  O  Saule  luperapax,  comedisti  ; 
expects  paululuni,  &.  digc^res.  D'cam  plane,  e!isus  est  filius  pcrditionis.  Nam 
si  Sanctus  Slephanus  sic  non  orasset,  Ecclesia  Pauhim  non  liaberet.  Sed  ideo 
erectus  est  PauUis.  (piia  in  terra  inclinatus  exauditus  est  Stephanus.  Qiiod  fe- 
cit persecutor,  patitur  prxdicator.  August.  Seniu  X.  dc  S.  Stepb.  Tom.  10. 
col.  1168. 

l^  Lib.  8.  cap.  46.  Coticil.  Tom.  1.  Col.  509,  q  H,  Eccl.  1.  2.c.  3.  p.  134. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  93 

it  is  probable  enough  was  not)  extends  to  no  less  than 
seven  years.     Doubtless  a  very  wide  mistake.     Sure  I 
am  'Eusebius  affirms,  that  it  was  not  long  after  his  ordi- 
nation to  his  deacon's  office,  and  the  author  of  the  Ex- 
cerpta  Chroiiologica  published  by  'Scaliger  more  particu- 
larly, that  it  was  some  few  days  less  than  eight  months 
after  our  Lord's  ascension.  He  is  generally  supposed  to  have 
been  young  at  the  time  of  his  martyrdom  ;  and  'Chrysos- 
tom  makes  no  scruple  of  styling  him  young  7nan  at  every 
turn,  though  for  what  reason,  I  confesss  I  am  yet  to  learu. 
He  was  martyred  without  the  walls,  near  the  gate  on  the 
north  side,  that  leads  to  Cedar  (as  "Lucian  tells  us)  and 
which  was  afterwards  called  S.  Stephen's  Gate;  ancient- 
ly (say  some)  styled  the  Gate  of  Ephraim,  or  as  others  the 
Valley  Gate,    or  the  Fish  Gate  which  stood  on  the  east 
side  of  the  city,  where  the  place  we  are  told  is  still  show- 
ed, where  S.  Paul  sat  when  he  kept  the  clothes  of  them  , 
that  slew  him.     Over  this  place  (wherever   it   was)   the 
empress  "Eudocia  wifeof  Theodosius,  when  she  repaired 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  erected   a  beautiful  and  stately- 
church  to  the  honour  of  St.  Stephen,  wherein  she  herself 
was  buried   afterwards.     The  great  stone  upon  which 
he  stood  while  he  suffered  martyrdom,  is  *said  to   have 
been  afterwards  removed  into  the    church   built   to  the 
honour  of  the  apostles  upon  Mount  Sion,  and  there  kept 
with  great  care  and  reverence:  yea,  one   of  the  stones 
wherewith   he    was  killed,    being  preserved    by  some 
Christian,   was  afterwards  (as  we  are  ''told)  carried  into 
Italy,  and  laid  up  as  a  choice  treasure  at  Ancona,  and  a 
church  there  built  to  the  memory  of  the  martyr. 

23.  The  church  received  a  great  wound  by  the  death 
of  this  pious  and  good  man,  and  could  not  but  express  a 
very  deep  resentment  of  it :  Devout  men  (probably  pro- 
selytes) carried  Stephen  to  his  burial,  and  made  great 
lamentation  for  him.     They     carried^    or    as   the  word 

r  I.oc.  Supr.  laudat. 

s  Ad.  c:dc.  Chro.  Euseb.  p.  82.  t  Orat.  in  S.  Steph.ubi  supr.  u  Ep. 

dc  Invent.  S.  Stcph.ap.  Jiir.  ad  Aug".  3.  Bed.  de  loc  S.  c.  1.  p.  36.?.  T.  3, 
Broc.  dc'sciipt.  Terr.  s.  p.  m.  328.  Convic.  Il  in.  I.  2.  c.  11.  p.  259.  v  Euag". 
H.  Eccl.  1.  I.  c.  22.  ]).  280.  w  Bed.  ib.  cap.  3.  p.  364.  x  "Q-i.^.  not  in 

Martyr.  Rom.  ad.  Aug-.  3-  p.  475.  ex  Mar'arol.  5.  Cynac. 


94  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

Cwv^'-t^iTi-  properly  signifies,  they  dressed  him  up,  and  pre- 
pared the  dead  body  for  the  burial.  For  we  cannot  rea- 
sonably suppose,  that  the  Jews  being  at  this  time  so 
mightily  enraged  against  him,  the  apostles  would  think 
it  prudent  further  to  provoke  the  exasperated  humour 
by  making  a  solemn  and  pompous  funeral.  His  burial 
(if  we  might  believe  '^one  of  the  ancients,  who  pretends 
it  was  revealed  to  him  in  a  vision  by  Gamaliel,  whom 
mimy  of  the  ancients  make  to  have  been  a  Christian  con- 
vert) was  on  this  manner.  The  Jewish  Sanhedrim,  hav- 
ing given  order  that  his  carcass  should  remain  in  the 
place  of  its  martyrdom  to  be  consumed  by  wild  beasts; 
here  it  lay  for  some  time  night  and  day,  untouched  either 
by  beast  or  bird  of  prey.  Till  Gamaliel,  compassionat- 
ing the  case  of  the  holy  martyr,  persuaded  some  religious 
Christian  proselytes,  who  dwelt  at  Jerusalem,  and  fur- 
nished them  with  all  things  necessary  for  it,  to  go  with 
all  possible  secrecy  and  fetch  off  his  body.  They 
brought  it  away  in  his  ov/n  carriage,  and  conveyed  it 
to  a  place  called  Caphargamala  (corruptly,  as  is  pro- 
bable, for  Caphargamaliel,  otherwise  n.^sD:!  13:?  proper- 
ly signifies  the  Town  of  Camels)  that  is,  the  Village  of 
Gamaliel,  twenty  miles  distant  from  Jerusalem;  where 
a  solemn  mourning  v/as  kept  for  him  seventy  days  at 
Gamaliel's  charge,  who  also  caused  him  to  be  buried  in 
the  east  side  of  his  own  monument,  where  afterwards  he 
was  interred  himself.  The  Greek  Me7iceo?f2id.ds,  that  his 
body  was  put  into  a  coffin  made  of  the  wood  of  the  tree 
called  persea  (this  was  a  large  beautiful  Egyptian  tree, 
as  ''Theophrastus  tells  us,  of  which  they  were  wont  to 
make  statues,  beds,  tables,  8cc.)  though  how  they  came 
by  such  very  particular  intelligence  (there  being  nothing 
of  it  in  Gamaliel's  Revelation)  I  am  not  able  to  imagine. 
•"Johannes  Phocas,  a  Greek  writer  of  the  middle  age  of 

y  Lucian.  Ep.  de  invent.  S.  Strph.  \\h\.  snpr.  &  apud.  Bar.  ad.  Ann.  415.  p 
371.  vid.  Niceph.  i.  U.  c   9.  Tom.  2.  p.  454. 

i'i  T?TC  <ji/TK.  Mcna-on  Grxcor.  tii  jcc'  ts  ^5;(iMo5.  sub  lit.  ^.  111.  b  Histor 

Plant.  I.  4.  c.  2.  p.  "236.         c  'fc)t4.jj(r.  rav  ly.  T3jr«v,  S^c  c.  14.  p.  19.  Edit.  Allat. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  95 

the  church,  agrees  in  the  relation  of  his  interment  by  Ga- 
maliel, but  adds,  that  he  was  first  buried  in  Mount  Sion, 
in  the  house  where  the  apostles  were  assembled  when  our 
Lord  came  in  to  them,  the  doors  being  s/ntt,  after  his  re- 
surrection, and  afterwards  removed  by  Gamaliel  to  ano- 
ther place,  which  (says  he)**  was  on  the  left  side  the  city, 
as  it  looks  towards  Samaria,  where  a  famous  monastery 
was  built  afterwards. 

24.  But  wherever  his  body  was  interred,  it  rested 
quietly  for  several  ages,  till  we  hear  of  its  being  found 
out  in  the  reign  of  Honorius;  for  then  as  ''Sozomen  in- 
forms us,  it  was  discovered  at  the  same  time  vvith  the 
bones  of  the  prophet  Zachary,  an  account  of  both  which 
he  promises  to  give  ;  and  having  spoken  of  that  of  the 
prophet,  there  abruptly  ends  his  history.  But  what  is 
wanting  in  him  is  fully  supplied  by  other  hands,  espe- 
cially the  forementioned  'Lucian,  presbyter  of  the  town 
of  Caphargamala  in  the  diocese  of  Jerusalem,  who  is 
very  large  and  punctual  in  his  account,  the  sum  where- 
of (so  far  as  concerns  the  present  case,  and  is  material 
to  relate)  is  this.  Sleeping  one  night  in  the  baptisteri- 
um  of  his  church  (this  was  ann.  415.  Honor.  Imper.  2L) 
there  appeared  to  him  a  grave  venerable  old  man,  vrho 
told  him  he  was  Gamaliel,  bade  him  go  to  John  bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  and  will  him  to  remove  his  remains  and 
some  others  (whereof  S.  Stephen  was  the  principal) 
that  were  with  him  from  the  place  where  they  lay. 
Three  several  times  the  vision  appeared  to  him  before 
he  would  be  fully  satisfied  in  the  thing,  and  then  he 
acquainted  the  bishop  with  it,  who  commanded  him  to 
search  after  the  place.  After  some  attempts,  he  found 
the  place  of  their  repository,  and  then  gave  the  bishop 
notice,  who  came  and  brought  two  other  bishops,  Eleu- 
therius  of  Sebaste,  and  Eleutherius  of  Hiericho,  along 
with  him.  The  monument  being  opened,  they  found 
an  inscription  upon  S.  Stephen's  tomb-stone  in  deep 
letters,  Celiel^  signifying  (says  mine  autlior)  the  servant 

d  Ibid.  c.  15.  p.  25.        e  H.  Eccl.  1.  9.  c.  16,  17.  p.  8ir.  f  Vid.  loc.  supr. 

ciUt.  &.  Phot.  Cod.  in.     Coi.  383. 


96  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

of  God;  at  the  opening  of  the  coffin  there  was  an  earth- 
quake, and  a  very  pleasant  and  delightfiil  fragranc}-  came 
from  it,  and  several  miraculous  cures  were  done  by  it. 
The  remains  being  closed  up  again  (only  some  few  bones 
and  a  little  of  the  dust  that  was  taken  out  and  bestowed 
upon  Lucian)  were  with  great  triumph  and  rejoicing 
conveyed  to  the  church  that  stood  upon  Mount  Sion,  the 
place  where  he  himself  while  alive  had  discharged  the 
office  of  a  deacon.  I  add  no  more  of  this,  but  that  this 
story  is  not  only  mentioned  by  ^Photius,  and  before  him 
by  ^Marcellinus  Comes,  sometimes  chancellor  or  secre- 
tai^y  to  Justinian,  afterwards  emperor  (who  sets  it  down 
as  done  in  the  very  same  year,  and  under  the  same  con- 
suls wherein  Lucian's  epistle  reports  it)  but  before  both 
by  'Gennadius  presbyter  of  Marseilles,  who  lived  Ann. 
490,  and  many  years  before,  and  consequently  not  long 
after  the  time  of  Lucian  himself;  who  also  adds,  that 
Lucian  wrote  a  relation  of  it  in  Greek  to  all  the  churches, 
which  Avitus,  a  Spanish  presbyter,  translated  into  Latin, 
whose  epistle  is  prefixed  to  it,  wherein  he  gives  an  ac- 
count of  it  to  Balchonius  bishop  cf  Braga,  and  sent  it 
by  Orosius  into  Spain. 

25.  These  remains  (whether  before  or  after,  the  reader 
must  judge  by  the  sequel  of  the  story,  though  I  question 
whether  he  will  have  faith  enough  to  believe  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  it)  VxTre  translated  to  Constantinople  upon 
this  occasion.  Alexander,''  a  nobleman  of  the  senatorian 
order,  having  a  particular  veneration  for  the  protomartyr, 
hafl  erected  an  oratory  to  him  in  Palestine,  comimanding 
that  himself,  when  dead,  being  put  into  a  coffin  like  that 
of  St.  Stephen,  should  be  buried  by  him.  Eight  years 
after,  his  lady  (whose  name,  say  some,  was  Juliana)  re- 
moving to  Constantinople,  resolved  to  take  her  husband's 
body  along  with  her  ;  but  in  a  hurry  she  chanced  to  mis- 
take St.  Stephen's  coffin  for  that  of  her  husband,  and  so 
set  forward  on  her  journey.    But  it  soon  betrayed  itself  by 

gLoc.  citat.  h  Marcel.  Chron.  Indict.  13.  p.  m.  17.         i  De  Script. 

Ecc  C.46,  47.  p.  55. 
k  Niccph.  H.  Ecc.  lib.  14.  c.  9.  p.  454.  Tom.  2.  Eadera  habet  Menaeon  Gixc. 

Ai>«r.  t5  ft'  6ub.  ht.  g.  11. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  97 

an  extraordinary  odour,  and  some  miraculous  effects  ; 
the  fame  whereof  flying  before  to  Constantinople,  had 
prepared  the  people  to  conduct  it  with  great  joy  and  so- 
lemnity into  the  imperial  palace.  Which  yet  could  not 
be  effected  ;  for  the  sturdy  mules  that  carried  the  trea- 
sure, being  come  as  far  as  Constantine's  Baths,  would 
not  advance  one  step  further.  And  when  unreasonably 
whipped  and  pricked,  they  spake  aloud,  and  told  those 
that  conducted  them,  that  the  martyr  was  to  be  reposed 
and  interred  in  that  place.  Which  was  accordingly  done, 
and  a  beautiful  church  built  there.  But  certainly  they 
that  first  added  this  passage  to  the  story  had  been  at  a 
great  loss  for  invention,  had  not  the  story  of  Balaam's  ass 
been  upon  record  in  scripture.  I  confess  Baronius'  seems 
not  over  forward  to  believe  this  relation,  not  for  the  tri- 
fling and  ridiculous  improbabilities  of  it,  but  only  because 
he  could  not  well  reconcile  it  with  the  time  of  its  being 
first  found  out  by  Lucian.  Indeed  my  authors  tell  us, 
that  this  was  done  in  the  time  of  Constantine,  Metro- 
phanes  being  then  bishop  of  Constantinople,  and  that  it 
was  only  some  part  of  his  remains  buried  again  by  some 
devout  Christians,  that  was  discovered  in  a  vision  to  Lii- 
cian,  and  that  the  empress  Pulcheria,  by  the  help  of  her 
brother  Theodosius,  procured  from  the  bishop  of  Jeru- 
salem the  martyr's  right  hand,  which  being  aiTived  at 
Constantinople,  was  with  singular  reverence  and  rejoicing 
brought  into  the  palace  and  there  laid  up,  and  a  stately 
and  magnificent  church  erected  for  it,  set  off  with  all 
rich  and  costly  ornaments  Ind  advantages. 

:26.  Authors'"  mention  another  remove  Ann.  439  (and 
let  the  curious  and  inquisitive  after  these  matters  recon- 
cile the  different  accounts)  of  his  remains  to  Constanti- 
nople, by  the  empress  Eudocia,  wife  to  Theodosius,"  who 
having  been  at  Jerusalem  upon  some  pious  and  charita- 
ble designs,  carried  back  with  her  to  the  imperial  city 
tlie  remains  of  St.  Stephen,  which  she  carefully  laid  \ip 
in  the  church  of  St.  Laurence.     The  Roman"  martyrolo- 

1  Bar.  acl  Arm.  439  Tom.  5.  ]i.  681.     m  Marccll.  chro.  Indict.  VII.  p.  24 
n  Th-Qdnr.  LeC.  lib.  2   p.  568.         o  Ad.  VII,  Maii.  p.  284 


98  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

gy  says,  that  in  the  time  of  Pope  Pelagius,  they  were  re- 
moved frDm  Constantinople  to  Rome,  and  lodged  in  the 
Sepulchre  of  S.  Laurence  the  martyr  in  agro  Verano, 
Avhere  they  are  honoured  with  great  piety  and  devotion. 
But  I  find  not  any  author  near  those  times  mentioning 
their  translation  into  any  of  these  western  parts,  except 
the  little  parcel  which  OrosiusP  brought  from  Jerusalem 
(whither  he  had  been  sent  by  St.  Augustin,  to  know  St. 
Hierom's  sense  in  the  question  about  the  original  of  the 
soul)  which  he  received  from  Avitus,  who  had  procured 
it  of  Lucian,  and  brought  it  along  with  him  into  the  west, 
that  is,  into  Africa,  for  whether  it  went  any  further,  I  find 
not, 

27.  As  for  the  miracles  reported  to  have  been  done  by 
the  remains  of  this  martyr,  Gregory  ,*i  bishop  of  Tours, 
and  the  writers  of  the  following  ages  have  furnished  the 
world  ^^"ith  abundant  instances,  which  I  insist  not  upon, 
superstition  having  been  the  peculiar  genius  and  humour 
of  those  middle  ages  of  the  church,  and  the  Christian 
world  miserably  over  run  with  an  excessive  and  immo- 
derate veneration  of  the  reliques  of  departed  saints. 
However,  I  can  venture  the  reader's  displeasure  forrela- 
t  ing  one,  and  the  rather  because  it  is  so  solemnly  averred 
by  Baronius'"  himself.  S.  Gaudiosus,  an  African  bishop, 
flying  from  the  Vandalic  persecution,  brought  with  him 
a  glass  vial  of  St.  Stephen's  blood  to  Naples  in  Italy, 
^V^here  it  was  famous,  especially  for  one  miraculous  effect, 
that  being  set  upon  the  altar,  at  the  time  of  mass,  it  was 
annually  wont  upon  the  third  of  August  (the  day  where- 
on St.  Stephen's  body  was  first  discovered)  to  melt  and 
bubble,  as  if  it  were  but  newly  shed.  But  the  miracle 
of  the  miracle  lay  in  this,  that  when  pope  Gregory  the 
XIII.  reformed  the  Roman  kalendar,  and  made  no  less 
than  ten  davs  difference  from  the  former,  the  blood  in 
the  vial  ceased  to  bubble  upon  the  third  of  August,  ac- 
cording to  the  old  computation,  and  bubbled  upon  that 

p  Vid.  Avir.  "^p.  Prxf.  Ep.  Li'cian.  Gemiad.  de  script.  Eccl.  in  Oros.  c.  39 
p.  53.  IVI  ,ro"11.  Cliron.  \).  17. 

q  De  glor.  Marnr.  lib.  1.  cap.  33.  p.  42.  iSfu. 
r   AiW.ot.  in  Martyr.  Rom.  ad  Augj.  111.  p.  4*4. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  99 

thiit  fell  according  to  the  new  reformation.  A  great  jus- 
tification, 1  confess  (as  Biironiiis  well  observes)  of  the 
Divine  authority  of  the  Gregorian  kalendar,  and  the 
pope's  constitutions  :  but  yet  it  was  ill  done  to  set  the 
Calendars  at  variance,  when  both  had  been  equally  justi- 
fied by  the  miracle.  But  how  easy  it  was  to  abuse  the 
world  with  such  tricks,  especially  in  these  latter  ages, 
wherein  the  artifice  of  the  priests  was  arrived  to  a  kind 
of  perfection  in  these  affairs,  is  no  difficult  matter  to 
imagine. 

28.  Let  us  then  look  to  the  more  early  ages,  when 
covetousness  and  secular  interests  had  not  so  generally 
put  men  upon  arts  of  craft  and  subtlety.  And  we  are 
told,  both  by  Lucian  and  Photius,'  that  at  the  first  dis- 
covery of  the  mart)-r's  body,  man}-  strange  miraculous 
cures  were  effected,  seventy-three  healed  only  by  smell- 
ing the  odour  and  fragrancy  of  the  body  ;  in  some  dce- 
mons  were  cast  out,  others  cured  of  issues  of  blood,  tu- 
mours, agues,  fevers,  and  infinite  other  distempers  that 
were  upon  them.  But  that  wliich  most  sways  with  me, 
is  what  St.  Augustin  reports  of  these  matters  ;  Avho 
seems  to  have  been  inquisitive  about  matters  of  fact,  as 
the  argument  he  managed  did  require.^  For  being  to 
demonstrate  against  the  Gentiks  that  miracles  were  not 
altogether  ceased  in  the  Christian  church,  among  several 
others  he  produces  many  instances  of  cures  miraculously 
done  at  the  remains  of  St.  Stephen,  brought  thither  (as 
before  we  noted)  by  Orosius  from  Jerusalem,  all  done 
thereabouts,  and  some  of  them  in  the  place  where  him- 
self lived,  and  of  which  (as  he  tells  us)  they  made  books, 
which  were  solemnly  published,  and  read  to  the  people, 
whereof  (at  the  time  of  his  writing)  there  were  no  less 
than  seventy  written  of  the  cures  done  at  Hippo  (the 
place  where  he  lived)  though  it  was  not  full  two  years 
since  the  memorial  of  St.  Stephen's  martyrdom  had  be- 
gun to  be  celebrated  in  that  place,  besides  many  where- 
of no  account  had  been  given  in  writing.     To  set  down 

s  Loc.  ante  citat. 

J  De  Civ.  Dei.  lib.  22.  cap.  8.  col.  1;146.  &c.  Tom  5. 


100  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

all  were  to  tire  the  reader's  patience  beyond  all  recovery^ 
a  few  only  for  a  specimen  shall  suffice.       At  the  Aqucs 
^   Tihilitance  Projecfus,  the  bishop  bringing  the  remains  of 
the  martyr,  in  a  vast  multitude  of  people,  a  blind  woman 
desiring  to  be  brought  to  the  bishop,  and  some  flowers 
which  she  brought  being  laid  upon  them,  and  after  ap- 
plied to  her  eyes,  to  the  wonder  of  all  she  instantly   re- 
ceived her  sight.     Lucillus,  bishop  of  Synica,  near  Hip- 
po, carrying  the  same  remains,  accompanied  with  all  the 
people,  was  suddenly  freed  from  a  desperate  disease  un- 
der which  he  had  a  long  time  laboured,  and  for  which  he 
even   then  expected  the   surgeon's    knife.     Eucharius, 
a  Spanish  presbyter,  then  dwelling  at  Calama  (whereof 
Possidius,  who  wrote  St.  Augustin's  life,    was  bishop) 
was  by  the  same  means  cured  of  the  stone,  which  he  had 
a  long  time  been  afilicted  with,  and  afterwards  recovered 
of  another  distemper,  when  he  had  been  given  over  for 
dead.     Martialis,  an  ancient  gentleman  in  that  place,  of 
great  note  and  rank,  but  a  pagan,  and  highly  prejudiced 
against  the  Christian  faith,  had  been  often  in  vain  solici- 
ted by  his  daughter  and  her  husband  (both  Christians) 
to  turn  Christian,  especially  in  his  sickness,  but  still  re- 
sented the  motion  with  indignation.    His  son-in-law  went 
to  the  place  dedicated  to  St.  Stephen's  martyrdom,  and 
there  with  prayers  and  tears  passionately  begged  of  God 
his  conversion.     Departing,  he  took  some  flowers  thence 
with  him,  which  at  night  he  put  under  his  father's  head, 
who  sle^jt  well,  and  in  the  morning  called  for  the  bishop, 
in  whose  absence  (for  he  was  at  that  time  with  St.  Augus- 
tin  at  Hippo)  the  presbyters  were   sent  for,  at  whose 
coming  he  acknowledged  himself  a  Christian,  and  to  the 
joy  and  admiration  of  all,  was   immediately   baptized. 
As  long  as  he  lived  he  often  had  these  words  in  his 
mouth,  and  they  were  the  last  words  that  he  spake  (for 
he  died  not  long  after)  0  Christ j  receive  my  spirit,  though 
utterly   ignorant  that  it  was   the   protomartyr's   dying 
speech. 

29.  Many  passages  of  like  nature  he  relates,  done  at 
his  own  see  at  Hippo,  and  this  among  the  rest.  Ten 
children  of  eminence  at  C^sarea  in  Cappadocia  (all  the 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN.  lOl 

children  of  one  man)  had  for  some  notorious  misdemean- 
our after  their  father's  death,  been  cursed  by  their  mo- 
ther, whereupon  they  were  all  seized  with  a  continual 
trembling  and  shaking  in  all  parts  of  their  body.  Two 
of  these,  Paulus  and  Palladia,  came  over  into  Africa,  and 
dwelt  at  Hippo,  notoriously  known  to  the  whole  city. 
They  arrived  fifteen  days  before  Easter,  where  they  fre- 
quented the  church,  especially  the  place  dedicated  to  the 
martyrdom  of  St.  Stephen,  every  day,  praying  that  God 
would  forgive  them,  and  restore  them  to  their  health. 
Upon  Easter-day  the  young  man,  praying  as  he  was  AV'ont 
at  the  accustomed  place,  suddenly  dropt  down,  and  la}- 
like  one  asleep,  but  without  any  trembling,  a}id  awaking 
found  himself  perfectly  restored  to  health,  who  was 
thereupon,  with  the  joyful  acclamations  of  the  people, 
brought  to  St.  Augustin,  who  kindly  received  him,  and 
after  the  public  devotions  were  over,  treated  him  at  din- 
ner, where  he  had  the  whole  account  of  the  misery  that 
befel  him.  The  day  after,  when  the  narrative  of  his  cure 
was  to  be  recited  to  the  people,  his  sister  also  was  healed 
in  the  same  manner,  and  at  the  same  place,  the  particu^ 
lar  circumstances  of  both  which  St.  Augustin  relates 
more  at  large. 

30.  What  the  judicious  and  unprejudiced  reader  will 
think  of  these  and  more  the  like  instances  there  reported 
b}^  this  good  father,  I  know  not,  or  whether  he  v/ill  not 
think  it  reasonable  to  believe,  that  God  might  suffer  these 
strange  and  miraculous  cures  to  be  wrought  in  a  place 
where  multitudes  yet  persisted  in  their  gentilism  and  in- 
fidelity," and  who  made  this  one  great  objection  against 
the  Christian  faith,  that  whatever  miracles  might  be  here- 
tofore pretended  for  the  confirmation  of  Christian  reli- 
gion, yet  that  now  they  were  ceased,  when  yet  they  were 
still  necessary  to  induce  the  world  to  the  belief  of  Chris- 
tianity. Certain  it  is,  that  nothing  w^as  done  herein,  but 
what  did  very  well  consist  with  the  wisdom  and  the  good- 
ness of  God,  "who  as  he  is  never  wont  to  be  prodigal  in 
multiplying  the  effects  of  his  omnipotent  power  beyond 

u  Vi<l.  Aug-.  loc,  cit.  inlliu  cap, 


102  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  STEPHEN. 

a  just  necessity,  so  is  nev^er  vv^anting  to  afford  all  neces- 
sary evidences  and  methods  of  conviction.  That  there- 
fore the  unbelieving  world  (who  made  this  the  great  re- 
fuge of  their  infidelity)  might  see  that  his  arm  was  not 
grown  effete  and  weak,  that  he  had  not  left  the  Christian 
religion  wholly  destitute  of  immediate  and  miraculous 
attestations,  he  was  pleased  to  exert  these  extraordinary 
powers,  that  he  might  baffle  their  unbelief,  and  silence 
their  objections  against  the  divinity  of  the  Christian  faith. 
And  for  this  reason  God  never  totally  withdrew  the  pow- 
er of  working  miracles  from  the  church,  till  the  world 
was  in  a  manner  wholly  subdued  to  the  faith  of  Christ. 
And  then  he  left  it  to  be  conducted  by  more  human  and 
regular  ways,  and  to  preserve  its  authority  over  the 
minds  of  men  by  those  standing  and  innate  characters  of 
Divinity  which  he  has  impressed  upon  it.  It  is  true 
that  the  church  of  Rome  still  pretends  to  this  power, 
which  it  endeavours  to  justify  by  appealing  to  these  and 
such  like  instances  :  but  in  vain  and  to  no  purpose  ;  the 
pretended  miracles  of  that  church  being  generally  trifling 
and  ludicrous,  far  beneath  that  gravity  and  seriousness 
that  should  work  upon  a  wise  and  considering  mind,  the 
manner  of  their  operation  obscure  and  ambiguous,  their 
numbers  excessive  and  immoderate,  the  occasions  of  them 
light  and  frivolous,  and  after  all,  the  things  themselves 
for  the  most  part  false,  and  the  reports  very  often  so 
monstrous  and  extravagant,  as  would  choke  any  sober 
and  rational  belief,  so  that  a  man  must  himself  become 
the  greatest  miracle  that  believes  them.  I  shall  observe 
no  more,  than  that  in  all  these  cases  related  by  St.  Au- 
gustin,  we  never  find  that  they  invocated  or  prayed  to 
the  martyr,  nor  begged  to  be  healed  by  his  merits  or  in- 
tercession, but  immediately  directed  their  addresses  to 
God  himself. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP, 

THE  DEACON  AND  EVANGELIST. 


His  birth-place.  The  confounding  him  with  St.  Philip,  the  apostle.  His 
election  to  the  office  of  a  deacon.  The  dispersion  of  the  church  at  Je- 
rusalem. Philip's  preaching  at  Samaria.  Inveterate  prejudices  be- 
tween the  Samaritans  and  the  Jews.  The  great  success  of  St.  Philip  s 
ministry.  The  impostures  of  Simon  Magus,  and  his  embracing  Chris- 
tianity. Tlie  Christians  at  Samaria  conhrmed  by  Peter  and  John. 
Philip  sent  to  Gaza.  His  meeting  with  the  Ethiopian  eunuch.  What 
Ethiopia  here  mt- ant.  Candace  who.  The  custom  of  retaining  eu- 
nuchs in  the  courts  of  the  eastern  pi'inces.  This  eunuch  who.  His 
office.  His  religion  and  great  piety.  His  conversion  and  baptism  by 
St.  Philip.  The  place  wliei-e  he  was  baptized.  The  eunuch's  return, 
and  propagating  Christianity  in  his  own  country.  Philip's  journey  to 
Cesarea,  and  fixing  his  abode  there.  His  four  daughters  virgin-pro- 
phetesses.    His  death. 

ST.  PHILIP  was  born  (as  Isidore  the  Peleusiot 
plainly  intimates)  at  Cassarea,  a  famous  port  town  be- 
tween Joppa  and  Ptolemais  in  the  province  of  Samaria  ; 
but  whether  he  had  any  other  warrant  for  it  than  his 
own  conjecture,  I  knov/  not,  there  being  some  circum- 
stances hou  ever  that  make  it  probable.  He  has  been  by 
some  both  formerly  and  of  later  times,  for  want  of  a  due 
regard  to  things  and  persons,  carelessly  confounded  with 
St.  Philip  the  apostle.  A  mistake  of  very  ancient  date, 
and  which  seems  to  have  been  embraced  by  some  of  the 
most  early  writers  of  the  church.  Bat  whoever  consi- 
ders that  the  one  was  an  apostle  and  one  of  the  twelve^ 
the  other  a  deacon  only,  and  one  of  the  seven,  chosen  out 
of  the  people,  and  set  apart  by  the  apostles,  that  they 
themselves  might  attend  the  more  iaanediate  ministries 
of  their  office,  that  the  ©ne  was  dispersed  up  and  dovv'^n 


104  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP. 

the  country,  while  the  other  remained  with  the  apostoHcal 
college  at  Jerusalem,  that  the  one  though  commissioned 
to  preach  and  to  baptize,  could  not  impart  the  Holy  Ghost 
(the  peculiar  prerogative  of  the  apostolical  office)  will  see 
just  reason  to  force  him  to  acknowledge  a  vast  difference 
between  them.  Our  St.  Philip  was  one  of  the  seventy 
disciples,  and  St.  Stephen's  next  colleague  in  the  deacon's 
office,  erected  for  the  conveniency  of  the  poor,  and  as- 
sisting the  apostles  in  some  inferior  services  and  minis- 
trations :  which  shows  him  to  have  been  a  person  of  great 
esteem  and  reputation  in  the  church  endowed  with  mi- 
raculous powers,  full  of  wisdom  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
which  were  the  qualifications  required  by  the  apostles 
in  those  who  were  to  be  constituted  to  this  place.  In  the 
discharge  of  this  ministry  he  continued  at  Jerusalem  for 
some  months  after  his  election,  till  the  church  being  scat- 
tered up  and  down,  he  was  forced  to  quit  his  station  :  as 
what  wonder  if  the  stewards  be  dismissed,  when  the 
household  is  broken  up  ? 

2.  The  protomartyr  had  been  lately  sacrificed  to  the 
rage  and  fury  of  his  enemies  :  but  the  bloody  cloud  did 
not  so  blow  over,  but  increased  into  a  blacker  tempest. 
Cruelty  and  revei)ge  never  say  it  is  enough,  like  the  tem- 
per of  the  devil,  ^vhose  malice  is  insatiable  and  eternal. 
Stephen's  death  would  not  suffice,  the  whole  church  is 
nov/  shot  at,  and  they  resolve  (if  possible)  to  extirpate 
the  religion  itself.  The  great  engineer  in  this  persecu- 
tion was  Saul,  whose  active  and  fiery  genius,  and  pas- 
sionate concern  for  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  made 
him  pursue  his  design  with  the  spirit  of  a  zealot,  and  the 
rage  of  a  madman.  He  had  furnished  himself  with  a 
commission  from  the  Sanhedrim,  he  soon  put  it  in 
execution,  broke  open  houses,  seized  whoever  he  met 
with  that  looked  but  like  a  disciple  of  the  crucified 
Jesus,  and  without  any  regard  to  sex  or  age,  beat,  and 
lulled  them  into  prison,  plucking  the  husband  from  the 
bosom  of  his  wife,  and  the  mother  from  the  embraces 
of  her  children,  blaspheming  God,  prosecuting  and  be- 
ing injurious  unto  men,  breathing  out  nothing  but  slaugh- 
ter and  threatenings  wherever  he  came  ;  whence  Kuse- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  105 

bius  calls  it  the  first  and  most  grievous  persecution  of 
the  church.'  The  church  by  this  means  was  forced  to 
retire,  the  apostles  only  remaining  privatel}"  at  Jerusa- 
lem, that  they  might  the  better  superintend  and  steer  the 
aftliirs  of  the  church,  while  the  rest  were  dispersed  up 
and  down  the  neighbouring  countries,  publishing  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  gospel,  and  declaring  the  nature  and 
design  of  it  in  all  places  where  they  came  ;  so  that  what 
their  enemies  intended  as  the  way  to  ruin  them,  by  break- 
ing the  knot  of  their  fellowship  and  society,  proved  an 
effectual  means  to  enlarge  the  bounds  of  Christianity. 
Thus  excellent  perfumes,  while  kept  close  in  a  box,  few 
are  the  better  for  them,  whereas  being  once,  whether 
casually  or  maliciously  spilt  upon  the  groimd,  the  fra- 
grant scent  presently  fills  all  corners  of  the  house. 

3.  Among  them  that  were  thus  dispersed  was  our 
evangelist,  so  styled  not  from  his  writing,  but  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  He  directed  his  journey  towards  the  pro- 
vince of  Samaria,  and  came  into  a  city  of  Samaria  (as 
those  words  may  be  read)  probably  Gitton,  the  birth- 
place of  Simon  Magus  ;  though  it  is  safest  to  understand 
it  of  Samaria  itself.  This  was  the  metropolis  of  the 
province,  had  been  for  some  ages  the  royal  seat  of  the 
kings  of  Israel,  but  being  utterly  destroyed  by  Hyrca- 
nus,  had  been  lately  re-edified  by  Herod  the  Great,  and 
in  honour  of  Augustus  (2=.5as-«)  by  him  by  styled  Sebaste, 
The  Samaritans  were  a  mixture  of  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
made  up  of  the  remains  that  were  left  of  the  Ten  Tribes 
which  were  carried  a^^■ay  captive,  and  those  heathen  co- 
lonies which  the  king  of  Babylon  brought  into  their 
room ;  and  their  religion  accordingly  was  nothing  but 
Judaism  blended  with  Pagan  rites,  though  so  highiy 
prized  and  valued  by  them,  that  they  made  no  scruple  to 
dispute  place,  and  to  vie  with  the  worship  of  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem.  Upon  this  account  there  had  been  an  an- 
cient and  inveterate  pique  and  quarrel  betAveen  the  Jews 
and  them,  so  as  utterly  to  refuse  all  mutual  intercourse 
with  each  other.     Hence  the  Samaritan  woman  wonder- 

aH.  Eccl,  1.2.  c.l.  p.  39. 
O 


106  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP. 

ed,  that  our  Lord  being  a  Jew^  should  ask  drink  fif  her ^ 
who  was  a  woman  of  Samaria  ;  for  the  Jtxvs  have  no  deal' 
ings  xvith  the  Samaritans}"  They  despised  them  at  the 
rate  of  heathens,  devoted  them  under  the  most  solemn 
execrations,  allowed  them  not  to  become  proselytes,  nor 
to  have  any  portion  in  the  resurrection  of  the  just,  suft'er- 
ed  not  an  Israelite  to  eat  v^^ith  them,  no  nor  to  say  amen 
to  their  blessing,  nor  did  they  think  they  could  fasten 
upon  our  Saviour  a  greater  character  of  reproach,  than  to 
say  that  he  was  a  Samaritan^  and  had  a  Devil.  But  God 
regards  not  the  prejudices  of  men,  nor  always  withholds 
his  kindness  from  them,  whom  we  are  ready  to  banish 
the  lines  of  love  and  friendship.  It  is  true  the  apostles 
at  their  first  mission  were  charged  not  to  go  in  the  way  of 
the  Gentiles^  nor  to  enter  into  any  city  of  the  Samaritans } 
But  when  Christ  by  his  death  had  broken  down  the  par- 
tition wall^  and  abolished  in  his  flesh  the  enmity^  even 
the  law  of  commandments  contained  in  ordinances^^  then 
the  gospel  came  and  preached  peace  as  well  to  them  that 
were  afar  off^  as  to  them  that  were  nigh.  Philip  there- 
fore freely  preached  the  gospel  to  these  Samaritans,  so 
odious,  so  distasteful  to  the  Jews  :  to  which  he  effectual- 
ly prepared  his  way  by  many  great  and  uncontrollable 
miracles,  which  being  arguments  fitted  to  the  capacies, 
and  accommodated  to  the  senses  of  the  meanest,  do  easili- 
est  convey  the  truth  into  the  minds  of  men.  And  the  suc- 
cess here  was  accordingly  i  the  people  generally  embrac- 
ing the  Christian  doctrine,  while  they  beheld  him  cu- 
ring all  manner  of  diseases,  and  powerfully  dispossessing 
dctmons,  who  with  great  horror  and  regret  were  forced  to 
quit  their  residence,  to  the  equal  joy  and  wonder  of  that 
]>iace. 

4,  In  this  city  was  one  Simon,  born  at  a  town  not  far 
off,  who  by  sorcery  and  magic  arts  had  strangely  insinu- 
ated himself  into  the  reverence  and  veneration  of  the  peo- 
ple. A  man  crafty  and  ambitious,  daring  and  insolent, 
whose  diabolical  sophistries  and  devices,  had  for  a  long 
time  so  amazed  the  eyes  of  the  vulgar,  that  they  really 

b  Joh.  4. 9.  c  Mallh.  10.  5.  d  Eph.  ii.  14,  15.  &  scq. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  107 

thought  him  (and  for  such  no  doubt  he  gave  out  himself) 
to  be  the  supreme  divinity,  probably  magnifying  him- 
self as  that  divine  power,  that  was  to  visit  the  Jews  as  the 
Messiah,  or  the  Son  of  God ;  among  the  Samaritans, 
giving  out  himself  to  be  the  Father  (as  ^Irenaeus  assures 
us)  TO,  TTpmrov  Oiiy,  as  his  countryman  ^Justin  Martyr  tells  us 
the  people  worshipped  him,  as  the  first  and  chicfest 
Deity  ;  as  afterwards  among  the  Gentiles  he  styled  him- 
self the  Holy  Ghost.  And  what  wonder  if  by  this  train 
of  artifices  the  people  were  tempted  and  seduced  to  ad- 
mire and  adore  him.  And  in  this  case  things  stood  at 
St.  Philip's  arrival,  whose  greater  and  more  unquestion- 
able miracles  quickly  turned  the  scale.  Imposture  can- 
not bear  the  too  near  approach  of  truth,  but  flies  before 
it,  as  darkness  vanishes  at  the  presence  of  the  sun.  The 
people,  sensible  of  their  error,  universally  flocked  to  St. 
Philip's  sermons,  and  convinced  by  the  efl[icacy  of  his 
doctrine,  and  the  power  of  his  miracles,  gave  up  them- 
selves his  converts,  and  were  by  baptism  initiated  into 
the  Christian  faith  :  Yea  the  magician  himself,  astonish- 
ed at  those  mighty  things  which  he  saw  done  by  Philip, 
professed  himself  his  proselyte  and  disciple,  and  was 
baptized  by  him  ;  being  either  really  persuaded  by  the 
convictive  evidence  of  truth,  or  else  for  some  sinister  de- 
signs craftily  dissembling  his  belief  and  profession  of 
Christianity.  A  piece  of  artifice  which  ^Eusebius  tells 
us  his  disciples  and  followers  still  observed  in  his  time, 
who,  in  imitation  of  their  father,  like  a  pest  or  a  lepro- 
sy, were  wont  to  creep  in  among  the  Christian  societies, 
that  so  they  might  with  the  more  advantage  poison  and 
infect  the  rest,  many  of  whom  having  been  discovered, 
had  with  shame  been  ejected  and  cast  out  of  the  church. 
5.  The  fame  of  St.  Philip's  success  at  Samaria  quickly 
flew  to  Jerusalem,  where  the  apostles  immediately  took 
care  to  despatch  some  of  their  own  number  to  confirm 
these  new  converts  in  the  faith.  Peter  and  John  were 
sent  upon  this  errand,  who  being  come,  prayed  for  them. 


e  Lib.  1  c.  20.  p.  115.  f  Apol,  ii.  p.  69.  vid      Tert,  de  pvxscr.  Hirst, 

c.  46.  p.  219.  g  H.  Eccl.  lib,  2.  c.  1.  p.  39. 


108  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP. 

and  laid  their  hands  upon  them,  ordaining,  probably ,'somc 
to  be  governors  of  the  church,  and  ministers  of  religion; 
which  was  no  sooner  done,  but  the  miraculous  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon  them.  A  plain  evidence  of 
the  apostolic  power  :  Philip  had  converted  and  baptized 
them,  but  being  only  a  deacon  (as  ''Epiphanius  and 
'jChrysostom  truly  observe)  could  not  confer  the  Holy 
Ghost,  this  being  a  faculty  bestowed  only  upon  the  apos- 
tles. Simon,  the  magician,  observing  this,  that  a  power 
of  working  miracles  was  conveyed  by  the  imposition  of 
the  apostles'  hands,  hoped  by  obtaining  it  to  recover  his 
credit  and  reputation  with  the  people  ;  to  which  end  he 
sought  by  such  methods  as  were  most  apt  to  prevail 
upon  himself,  to  corrupt  the  apostles  by  a  sum  of  money, 
to  confer  this  power  upon  him.  Peter  resented  the  mo- 
tion with  that  sharpness  and  severity  that  became  him, 
told  the  wretch  of  the  iniquity  of  his  offer,  and  the  evij^ 
state  and  condition  he  was  in,  advised  him  by  repen- 
tance to  make  his  peace  with  Heaven,  that  if  possible, 
he  might  prevent  the  miserable  fate  that  otherwise  did 
attend  him.  But  what  passed  between  Peter  and  this 
magician  both  here,  and  in  their  memorable  encounter 
at  Rome  (so  much  spoken  of  by  the  ancients)  we  have 
related  more  at  large  in  another  place.'' 

6.  Whether  St.  Philip  returned  with  the  apostles  to 
Jerusalem,  or  (as '  Chr}'SOstom  thinks)  staid  at  Samaria, 
and  the  parts  thereabouts,  we  have  no  intimations  left 
upon  record.  But  wherever  he  was,  an  angel  was  sent 
to  him  with  a  message  from  God,  to  go  and  instruct  a 
stranger  in  the  faith."'  The  angel  one  would  have  thought 
had  been  most  likely  himself  to  have  managed  this  busi- 
ness with  success.  But  the  wise  God  keeps  method 
and  order,  and  will  not  suffer  an  angel  to  take  that  work 
which  he  has  put  into  the  hands  of  his  ministers.  The 
bum  of  his  commission  was  to  go  toward  the   Souths 


h  Epipli.  Hrcrcs.  XXI.  p.  29.  i  Chrvs.  Homil.  18.  5n  Act.  p.  580. 

k  Antiqiiit.  Ai)p.  Life  of  St.  Pet.  Sect.  8.  n.  1.  Sect.  9.  n.  4. 
i  Homil.  19.  in  Act.  App.  p.  53.5. 

cTtct  oi  K:i\iP*r^  n-o  ii  ^uvuy.vfj  i(i'ri-J5iv  iiiAvwvm.    Chrysost.  ibid.  p.  586, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  lOQ 

unto  the  "way  that  goes  down  from  Jerusalem  to  GazOy 
Tvfiich  is  desert :  A  circumstance,  which  whether  it  re- 
late to  the  way,  or  the  city  is  not  easy  to  decide,  it  being 
probably  true  of  both.  Gaza,  was  a  city,  anciently  famous 
for  the  strange  efforts  of  Sampson's  strength,  for  his  cap- 
tivity, his  death,  and  the  burial  of  himself  and  his  enemies 
in  the  same  ruin.  It  was  afterwards  sacked  and  laid  waste 
by  Alexander  the  Great,  and  as  "  Strabo  notes,  remain- 
ed waste  and  desert  in  his  time  ;  the  prophetical  curse 
being  truly  accomplished  in  it,  Gaza  shall  be  forsaken  ; 
a  fate  which  the  prophet  Jeremiah  had  foretold  to  be  as 
certain,  as  if  he  had  seen  it  already  done,  baldness  is 
come  upon  Gaza. "  So  certainly  do  the  divine  threat- 
enings  arrest  and  take  hold  of  a  proud  and  impenitent 
people ;  so  easily  do  they  set  open  the  gates  for  ruin  to 
enter  into  the  strongest  and  best  fortified  cities,  where 
sin  has  once  undermined,  and  stripped  them  naked  of  the 
divine  protection. 

7.  No  sooner  had  St.  Philip  received  his  orders, 
though  he  knew  not  as  yet  the  intent  of  his  journey,  but 
he  addressed  himself  to  it,  he  arose  and  went :  he  did 
not  reason  with  himself  whether  he  might  not  be  mista- 
ken, and  that  be  a  false  and  deluding  vision  that  sent  him 
upon  such  an  unaccountable  errand,  and  into  a  desert 
and  a  wilderness,  where  he  was  more  likely  to  meet 
with  trees  and  rocks,  and  wild  beasts,  then  men  to 
preach  to  :  but  went  however,  well  knowing  God  never 
sends  any  upon  a  \  ain  or  a  foolish  errand.  An  excellent 
instance  of  obedience  ;  as  it  is  also  recorded  to  Abra- 
ham's eternal  honour  and  commendation,  that  when  God 
sent  his  warrant,  he  obeyed  and  went  out,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went.  As  he  was  on  his  journey,  he  espied 
coming  towards  him  a  man  of  Ethiopia :  an  Eunuch 
of  great  authority  wider  Candace  queen  of  the  Ethiopi- 
ans ;  who  had  the  charge  of  all  her  treasure,  and  had 
come  to  Jerusalem  to  worship;  though  in  what  part 
of  the  world  the  country   liere  spoken   of  was  situate 

r.  Geograph.l.  lo  p.  759'..  o  Zarh.  %A.  Jer.  iT-  5. 


110  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP. 

(the  word  being  variously  used  in  scripture)  has  been 
some  dispute.  ^  Dorotheus  and  "^  Sophronius  of  old, 
imd  some  later  writers,  place  it  in  Arabia  the  happy,  not 
far  from  the  Persian  Gulf;  but  it  is  most  generally  con- 
ceived to  be  meant  of  the  African  Ethiopia,  lying  under 
or  near  the  torrid  zone,  the  people  whereof  are  describ- 
ed by  Homer,  to  be  i<rx=^ot  i^j'^a-v,  the  remotest  part  of  man- 
kind ;  and  accordingly  St.  Hierom"  says  of  this  eunuch, 
that  he  came  from  Ethiopia,  that  is,  ah  extremis  mundi 
Jinibus^  from  the  furthest  corners  of  the  world.  The 
country  is  sometimes  styled  Cush,  probably  from  a 
mixture  of  the  Arabians,  who  inhabiting  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Red  Sea,  might  send  over  colonies  hither, 
who  settling  in  these  parts,  communicated  the  names 
of  Cush  and  Sabeea  to  them.  The  manners  of  the  peo- 
ple were  very  rude  and  barbarous,  and  the  people 
themselves,  especially  to  the  Jews,  contemptible  even 
to  a  proverb  ;  Are  ye  not  as  the  children  of  the  Ethiopi- 
ans itnto  me^  0  children  of  Israel,  saith  the  Lord?^  nay 
the  very  meeting  an  Ethiopian  was  accounted  an  ill 
omen,  and  an  unlucky  prognostication.  But  no  country- 
is  a  bar  to  Heaven,  the  grace  of  God  that  brings  salva- 
tion plucks  up  the  enclosures,  and  appears  to  all ;  so 
that  in  every  nation,  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh 
righteousness,  is  accepted  with  him. 

8.  But  we  cannot  reasonably  suppose  that  it  should 
be  meant  of  Ethiopia  at  large,  especially  as  parallel  at 
this  day  v,'ith  the  Abyssine  empire,  but  rather  of  that 
part  of  the  country  whose  Metropolis  was  called  Meroe, 
and  Saba  (as  it  is  called  both  by  Joscphus,^  and  the 
Abvssines  themselves  at  this  day)  situate  in  a  large 
Island,  encompassed  by  the  Nile,  and  the  rivers  of  Asta- 
pus,  and  Astoborra,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  for  about 
these  parts  it  was  (as  Pliny"  tells  us)  that  queens  had  a 
long  time  governed  under  the  title  of  Candace,  a  cus- 
tom (as  we  find  in  Strabo)  first  commencing  in  the  time 


p  Dorotli.  S3  nops.  p.  148.        q  Sophr.  ap.  Hipr.de  Scrip.  Eccl.  in  Crescent. 

r  Hier.  5f1  Haul.  Tom.  5.  •(•..  7 .  s  Aitu;s^9.  7. 

t  Antiq.  Jud.  1.  2.  c.  3.  p.  53.  u  Hist.  Nat.  I.  6.  c.  29.  p.  105. 


i 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  ill 

of  Augustus,  when  a  queen  of  that  name  having  for  her 
incomparable  virtues  been  dear  to  the  people,  her  suc- 
cessors in  honour  of  her  took  the  title  oi'  Candace,  in  the 
same  sense  that  Ptolomy  was  the  common  name  of  the 
kings  of  Egypt,  Artaxerxes  of  the  kings  of  Persia,  and 
Cassar  of  the  Roman  emperors.  Indeed  Oecumenius 
was  of  opinion  that  Candace  was  only  the  common  name 
of  the  queen-mothers  of  Ethiopia,  that  nation  not  giv- 
ing the  name  of  fathers  to  their  kings,  as  acknowledging 
the  sun  only  for  their  common  father,  and  their  princes 
the  sons  of  that  comm^on  parent."'  But  in  this  I  think  he 
stands  alone,  and  contradicts  the  general  vote  and  suf- 
frage of  the  ancients,  which  affirms  this  nation  to  have 
been  subject  to  women;  sure  I  am  Euscbius"^  express- 
ly says,  it  was  the  custom  of  this  country  to  be  govern- 
ed by  queens  even  in  his  time.  The  name  of  the  pre- 
sent queen  (they  say)  was  Lacasa,  daughter  of  king 
Baazena,  and  that  she  outlived  the  death  of  our  Saviour 
four  years. 

9.  Among  the  great  officers  of  her  court  she  had  one 
(if  not  more)  eunuch,  probably  to  avoid  suspicion,  it  be- 
ing the  fashion  of  those  eastern  countries  (as  it  still  is  at 
this  day)  to  employ  eunuchs  in  places  of  great  trust  and 
honour,  and  especially  of  near  access  to,  and  attendance 
upon  queens.  For  however  among  us  the  very  name 
sounds  vile  and  contemptible,  yet  in  those  countries  it 
is  otherwise  ;  among  the  Barbarians  (says  Herodotus") 
that  is,  the  eastern  people,  eunuchs  are  persons  of  the 
greatest  esteem  and  value.  Our  eunuch's  name  (as  we 
find  it  in  the  confession  made  by  Zaga  Zabo,'' ambassa- 
dor from  the  Ethiopian  emperor)  was  Indich,  <rv.«sTf;,  a 
potent  courtier,  an  officer  of  state  of  prime  note  and  qua- 

V  'l^Uy  it  OT/  KaviTa'xjiv  Ai3-/cT«f  rrl^dtv  tmv  tS  /SaT//.fS';  fA-ini^t  xO.Z<riVy  vtuSm  ttx.- 
Tt^A  Ai-^(':Ttc  Sx  fltva<f s|K5-/v,  a'/x'  u;  oy7ac  vlii  ^hix  iw/^udJ'-^c-  >.  ineig-x  it  tuv  /u.y,r'fpx 
xaAts-i  KdyixiDiv.     Oecumen.  Comment,  in  Act.  viii.  p.  82. 

w  H.  Eccl.  1.  2.  c.  l.p.  40. 

^iay.     Herod,  lib.  8. 

Auctor  Sinnaces,  insignifamilia  ac  perinde  opibus,  &  proxime  huic  Abdus, 
alomptse  virilitatis,  non  despectum  idapudbarbaros,ultroqiie  poterttiam  habet. 
"Jacit.  Ann.  i.  6.  c.  31. p.  182. 

y  Ettat,  ad  Bzov.  Annal.  Eccl.  ad  Ann.  1i24  n.  ZXZII.  p.  543. 


112  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP. 

lity,  being  no  less  than  high  treasurer  to  the  queen  ;  nor 
do  we  find  that  Philip,  either  at  his  conversion  or  bap- 
tism, found  fault  with  him  for  his  place  or  greatness. 
Certainly  magistracy  is  no  ways  inconsistent  with  Chris- 
tianity ;  the  church  and  the  state  may  well  agree,  and 
Moses  and  Aaron  go  hand  in  hand.  Peter  baptized  Cor- 
nelius, and  St.  Paul  Sergius,  the  proconsul  of  Cyprus, 
into  the  Christian  faith,  and  yet  neither  of  them  found 
any  more  fault  with  them  for  their  places  of  authority  and 
power  than  Philip  did  here  with  the  lord  treasurer  of  the 
Ethiopian  queen.  For  his  religion,  he  was,  if  not  2i pro- 
selyte of  justice^  (as  some  think)  circumcised,  and  under 
an  obligation  to  observe  the  rites  and  precepts  of  the  law 
of  Moses,  at  least  a  proselyte  of  the  gate  (in  which  respect 
it  is  that  one  of  the  ancients  calls  him  a  Jew)  ''entered  al- 
ready into  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  and  was  now 
come  to  Jerusalem  (probably  at  the  solemnity  of  the  pass- 
over,  or  the  feast  of  Pentecost)  to  give  public  and  solemn 
evidences  of  his  devotion.  Though  an  Ethiopian,  and 
many  thousand  miles  distant  from  it,  though  a  great 
statesman,  and  necessarily  swallowed  up  in  a  crowd  of 
business,  yet  he  came  to  Jerusalem  for  to  'vorship.  No 
way  so  long,  so  rugged  and  difficult,  no  charge  or  inter- 
est so  dear  and  great,  as  to  hinder  a  good  man  from 
minding  the  concernments  of  religion.  No  slender  and 
trifling  pretences,  no  little  ajid  ordinary  occasions,  should 
excuse  our  attendance  upon  places  of  public  worship  : 
behold  here  a  man  that  thought  not  much  to  take  a  jour- 
ney of  above  four  thousand  miles,  that  he  might  appear 
before  God,  in  the  solemn  place  of  Divine  adoration,  the 
place  which  God  had  chosen  above  all  other  parts  of  the 
world,  to  place  his  name  there. 

10.  Having  performed  his  homage  and  worship  at  the 
temple,  he  was  now  upon  his  return  for  his  own  country  ; 
nor  had  he  left  his  religion  at  church  behind  him,  or 
thought  it  enough  that  he  had  been  there,  but  improved 
himself  while  tra\elling  by  the  way  :  even  while  he  sat 
in  his  chariot   (as  Chrysostom  observes")   he  read  the 

r  Pont.  D'lac.  in  vlt.  Cvpr.  p  11,        a  Hcmil,  19.  In  Act,  p.  S'^S', 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  U3 

scriptures.  A  good  man  is  not  willing  to  lose  even  common 
minutes,  but  to  redeem  what  time  is  possible  for  holy- 
uses  :  whether  sitting,  or  walking,  or  journeying,  our 
thoughts  should  be  at  work,  and  our  affections  travelling 
towards  heaven. '^  While  the  eunuch  was  thus  employ- 
ed, a  messenger  is  sent  to  him  from  God  :  the  best  way 
to  meet  with  Divine  communications  is  to  be  conversant 
in  our  duty.  By  a  voice  from  Heaven,  or  some  imme- 
diate inspiration,  Philip  is  commanded  to  go  near  the 
chariot^  and  address  himself  to  him.  He  did  so,  and 
found  him  reading  a  section  or  paragraph  of  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  concerning  the  death  and  sufferings  of  the  Mes- 
siah, his  meek  and  innocent  carj'iage,  under  the  bloody 
and  barbarous  violences  of  his  enemies,  who  dealt  with 
him  with  all  cruelty  and  injustice.  This  the  eunuch  not 
well  understanding,  nor  knowing  certainly  whether  the 
prophet  meant  it  of  himself  or  another,  desired  St.  Phi- 
lip to  explain  it,  who  being  courteously  taken  up  into  his 
chariot,  showed  him  that  all  this  was  meant  of,  and  had 
been  accomplished  in  the  Holy  Jesus,  taking  occasion 
thence  to  discourse  to  him  of  his  nativity,  his  actions  and 
miracles,  his  sufferings  and  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and 
his  ascension  into  heaven,  declaring  to  him  the  v/hole 
system  of  the  Christian  faith.  His  discourse  wanted  not 
its  desired  effect  ;  the  eunuch  was  fully  satisfied  in  the 
Messiahship  and  Divine  authority  of  our  Saviour,  and 
wanted  nothing  but  the  solemn  rite  of  initiation  to  rnake 
him  a  Christian  proselyte.  Being  come  to  a  place  where 
there  was  conveniency  of  water,  he  desired  that  he  might 
be  baptized,  and  having  professed  his  faith  in  the  Son  of 
God,  and  his  hearty  embracing  the  Christian  religion, 
theij  both  went  down  into  the  water,  where  Philip  baptiz^ 
ed  him,  and  washed  this  Ethiopian  white, 

1 1.  The  place  where  this  eunuch  was  baptized,  Beza,^ 
by  a  very  wide  mistake  makes  to  be  the  river  Kleutherus, 
which  ran  near  the  foot  of  Mount  Lebanon,  in  the  moat 
northern  borders  of  Palestine,   quite  at  the  other  end  of 

b  Tantus  amator  Legis  dlvin?eq;  scicmis  fuit,  ut  etii^m  in  vchiculo  saevas  lit?. 
r4«  leg-eret.     Bitr.  E-  tit.  ad  Paidin.  T.  3.  p.  7- 
v-  Atmot.  in  Act  Vlil.  'Z6. 

f 


114  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP. 

the  cour.trv  ;  Brocard''  places  it  near  Nehel  Escol,  or  the 
Torrent  of  the  Grape^  the  place  whence  the  spies  fetched 
the  bunch  of  grapes  ;  on  the  left  side  of  which  valley, 
about  half  a  league,  runs  a  brook  not  far  from  Sicelech,  in 
which  this  eunuch  was  baptized.  But  Eusebius*"  and  St.  Hi- 
eroni'  (followed  herein  by  Ado,^  the  martyrologist)  more 
probably  place  it  near  Bethsoron  (where  we  are  told**  it  is 
still  to  be  seen  at  this  'day)  a  village  twenty  miles  distant 
from  Jerusiilem  in  the  way  between  it  and  Hebron,  near 
to  which  there  was  a  spring  bubbling  up  at  the  foot  of  a 
hill.  S*.  Hierom  adds,  that  it  was  again  swallowed  up 
in  the  same  ground  that  produced  it,  imdthat  here  it  was 
that  Philip  baptized  the  Ethiopian  ;  which  was  no  soon- 
er done,  but  Heaven  set  an  extraordinary  seal  to  his  con- 
version and  admission  into  the  Christian  faith,  especial- 
ly if  it  be  true  what  some  very  ancient  manuscripts  add 
to  the  passage,  that  being  baptized,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell 
upcii  him,'  furnishing  him  with  miraculous  gifts  and  pow- 
ers, and  that  Philip  was  immediately  snatched  away  from 
him. 

12.  Though  the  eunuch  had  lost  his  tutor,  yet  he  re- 
joiced that  he  had  found  so  great  a  treasure,  the  know- 
ledp;e  of  Christ,  and  of  the  true  way  to  Heaven,  and  he 
^vent  on  his  journey  with  infiriite  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
mind,  satisfied  with  the  hiippines  that  had  befallen  him. 
Beinrr  returned  into  his  country,  he  preached  and  propa- 
gated the  Christian  faith,  and  spread  abroad  the  glad  ti- 
dings of  a  Saviour  :  in  Vv-hich  respect  St.  Hierom"^  styles 
him  the  apostle  of  the  Ktlnopians^  and  the  ancients'  gene- 
ral'y  make  that  prediction  of  David  fulfilled  in  him,  Ethi- 
opia shall  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God^  and  hence  the 
Ethi(^pians  are  wont  to  glory  (as  appears  by  the  confes- 
sion™ made  l>v  the  Abvsiiiiian  ambassador)  that  bv  means 

d   Desrr  nt    Terr.  Sanct.  p.  m   330. 

e  Eiiseb.  <ie  I'lC.  H<  bi".  in  voc   B»Ji-»g.  p.  66. 

{■  Hie'on.fle  Uic   Hebr.  in  voc.  Bcbur.         q   Ad.  Martvr.  VIII.  Idiis  Jun. 

h  C.oicvic.  Itni.  I.  2.  c  9.  p.  547 

T3».     Cud.  Ale\:ind.  in  iiibl.  Rei;-.  An^l   aiiiqiie  plurts  Codd.  MSS. 
k   CiiMi.  ill  Lsii    oo.  T.  5.  p.  195. 

1  Kuseb.  H.  Eccl.  I.  2.  c.  )>.  io.  Cvnl.  Catocli.  XVII.  p.  457.  Psal.  Ixviii.  31. 
ra  Apud  Bzov.  ubi  supr.  vid.  GoUi^n.  de  rebus  Abvssin.  I.  1.  c.  18.  p.  113. 


I 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  115 

uf  this  eunuch  they  received  baptism  almost  the  first  of 
any  Christians  in  the  world.  Indeed  they  have  a  con- 
stant tradition  that  tor  many  ai^es  they  had  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God  of  Israel,  from  the  time  of  the  queen  of 
Sheba  (and  Seba  bein^^  the  name  of  this  country,  as  we 
noted  before,  makes  it  probable  she  might  govern  here) 
her  name  (they  tell  us)  was  Maqueda,  who  having  learnt 
from  Solomon  the  knowledge  of  the  Jewish  law,  and  re- 
ceived the  books  of  their  religion,  taught  them  her  sub- 
jects, and  sent  her  son  Meilech  to  Solomon,  to  be  in- 
structed and  educated  by  him  :  the  storj-  whereof  may 
be  read  in  that  confession  more  at  large.  I  add  no  more 
concerning  the  eunuch,  than  what  Dorotheus"  and  others 
relate,  that  he  is  reported  to  have  suffered  martyrdom, 
and  to  have  been  honourably  buried,  and  that  diseases 
were  cured,  and  other  miracles  done  at  his  tomb,  even 
in  his  lime."  The  traditions  of  the  country  more  parti- 
cularly tell  us,  that  the  eunuch  being  returned  home,  first 
converted  his  mistress,  Candace,  to  the  Christian  faith, 
and  afterwards  by  her  leave  propagated  it  throughout 
Ethiopia,  till  meeting  with  St.  Alatthew,  the  apostle,  by 
their  joint  endeavours  they  expelled  idolatry-  out  of  ail 
those  parts.  Which  done,  he  crossed  the  Red  Sea,  and 
preached  the  Christian  religion  in  Arabia,  Persia,  India, 
and  many  other  of  those  eastern  nations,  till  at  length  in 
the  island  Taprobana,  since  called  Ceylon,  he  sealed  his 
doctrine  with  his  blood. 

13.  God,  who  always  affords  what  is  sufliicient,  is  not 
wont  to  multiply  means  further  than  is  necessary.  Phi- 
lip having  done  the  errand  upon  which  he  was  sent,  was 
immediately  caught  and  carried  away,  no  doubt  by  the 
ministry  of  an  angel,  and  landed  at  Azotus,  anciently  Ash- 
dod,  a  Philistine  city  in  the  borders  of  the  tribe  of  Dan, 
famous  of  old  for  the  temple  and  residence  in  it  of  the 
idol  Dagon,  and  the  captivity  of  the  ark  kept  for  some 
time  in  this  place,  and  now  enlightened  with  St.  Philip's 
preaching,  who  went  np  and  down  publishing  the  gospel 
in  all  the  parts  hereabouts  till  he  arrived  at  Cesarea.  'J  his 

n  SjTiops.  uhi  supr.  v'ul.  etiam  Sopl.r.  ap.  Kier.  in  Cresc. 
o  Ap.  Godi^n.  loc.  cit;*t.  p.  117. 


116  THE  LIF£  of  ST.  PHILIP. 

city  Was  heretofore  called  Turris  Stratonis^  and  after. 
wards  rebuilt  and  enlarged  by  Herod  the  Great,  and  in 
honour  of  Augustus  Caesar,  to  whom  he  was  greatly 
obliged,  by  him  called  Cesarea  ;  for  whose  sake  also  he 
erected  in  it  a  stately  palace  of  marble,  called  Herod' i 
Judgment  Ilall^  wherein  his  nephew,  ambitious  of  greater 
honours  and  acclamations  than  became  him,  had  that  fa- 
tal execution  served  upon  him*  It  was  a  place  remark- 
able for  many  devout  and  pious  men.  Here  dwelt  Cor-^ 
iielius,  who  together  with  his  family  being  baptized  by 
Peter,  was  in  that  respect  the  first  fruits  of  the  Gentile 
World  \  hither  came  Agabus  the  prophet,  who  foretold 
St.  Paul  his  imprisonment  and  martyrdom :  here  St. 
Paul  himself  was  kept  prisoner,  and  made  those  brave 
and  generous  apologies  for  himself,  first  before  Felix, 
as  afterwards  before  Festus  and  Agrippa.  Here  also  our 
St.  Philip  had  his  house  and  family,  to  which  probably 
he  now  retired,  and  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
life  ;  for  here  many  years  after  we  find  St.  Paul  and  his 
company,  coming  from  Ptolemais  in  their  journey  to  Je- 
rusalem, entering  into  the  house  of  Philip  the  evangelist, 
nvhich  ivas  one  of  the  seven,  and  abiding  with  him  ;  and 
the  same  man  had  four  daughters,  virgins,  which  did  pro - 
phesy.P  These  virgin  prophetesses  were  endowed  with 
the  gift  of  foretelling  future  events  ;  for  though  prophecy 
in  these  times  implied  also  a  faculty  of  explaining  the 
more  abstruse  and  difficult  parts  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
and  a  peculiar  ability  to  demonstrate  Christ's  Messiah- 
ship  from  the  predictions  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and 
to  express  themselves  on  a  sudden  upon  any  difficult  and 
emergetit  occasion,  yet  can  we  not  suppose  these  virgins 
to  have  had  this  part  of  the  prophetic  faculty,  or  at  least 
that  they  did  not  publicly  exercise  it  in  the  congrega- 
tion. This,  therefore,  unquestionably  respected  things 
to  come,  and  was  an  instance  of  God's  accomplishing  an 
ancient  promise,  that  in  the  times  of  the  Messiah,  he 
would  pour  out  of  his  spirit  upon  all  flesh,  on  their  so?is, 
and  daughters,  servants  and  handmaidens,  and  they  should 
prophesy^     The  names  of  tv/o  of  these  daughters  the 

pAct  XXI.  8,9.        q  Act.  II.  17,  18.  v:  ..^tW 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PHILIP.  117 

Greek  Menaeon  tells  us  were  Hermione  and  Eutychis, 
who  came  into  Asia  after  St.  John's  death,  and  the  first 
of  them  died  and  was  buried  at  Ephesus. 

14.  How  long  St.  Philip  lived  after  his  return  to  Ce- 
sarea,  and  whether  he  made  any  more  excursions  for  the 
propagation  of  the  faith,  is  not  certainly  known.  "^Do- 
rotheus,  I  know  not  upon  what  ground,  will  have  him  to 
have  been  bishop  of  Trazellis,  a  city  in  Asia :  "^others 
confounding  him  with  St.  Philip,  the  apostle,  make  him 
resident  at  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia,  where  he  suffered 
martyrdom,  and  was  buried  (say  they)  together  with  his 
daughters.'  Most  probable  it  is  that  he  died  a  peaceable 
death  at  Cesarea,  where  his  daughters  were  also  buried, 
as  some  ancient*  Marty ologies  inform  us ;  where  his 
house  and  the  apartments  of  his  virgin  daughters  were 
yet  to  be  seen  in  "S.  Hierom's  time,  visited  and  admired 
by  the  noble  and  religious  Roman  lady  Paula,  in  her 
journey  to  the  Holy  Land. 

r  Synops.  de  Vit.  App.  loc.  citat.  Polycrat.  ap.  Euseb.  1.  3.  c.  31.  p.  102. 

s  Pro'cul.  ib.p.  103.  t  Marlvr.  Rom.  ad  VI.  Jun.p.  349  Martyr.  Adon.  VIII. 
M.  Jun.         u  Hier.  Epitaph.  Paul,  ad  Eustoch.  T.  1.  p.  1^2. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS, 

THE  APOSTLE. 


His  surname  loses.  The  title  of  Barnabas  whence  added  to  him.  His 
country  and  parents.  His  education  and  conversion  to  Christianity. 
His  generous  charity.  St.  Paul's  address  to  iiim,  after  his  conversion. 
His  coniiiiission  to  confirm  the  church  of  Anticch.  His  taking  St.  Paul 
into  his  assistance.  Their  being  sent  with  contributions  to  the  church 
at  Jerusalem.  Their  peculiar  separation  for  the  ministry  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. Imposition  of  hands  the  usual  rite  of  ordination.  Their  travels 
through  several  countries.  Their  success  in  Cyprus.  Barnabas  at 
Lystra.  taken  for  Jupiter,  and  why.  Their  return  to  Antioch.  Their 
embassy  to  Jerusalem  about  the  controversy  concerning  the  legal  rites. 
Barnabas  seduced  by  Peter's  dissimulation  at  Antioch.  The  dissentioa 
between  him  and  St.  Paul.  Barnabas's  journey  to  Cyprus.  His  voy- 
age to  Rome,  and  preaching  the  Christian  faith  there.  His  martyr- 
dom by  the  Jews  in  Cyprus.  His  burial.  His  body  when  first  disco- 
vered. St.  Matthew's  Hebrew  gospel  found  with  it.  The  great  pri- 
vileges hereupon  conferred  upon  the  See  of  Salamis.  A  description  of 
his  pers'.n  and  temper.  The  epistle  anciently  pubhshed  under  his 
name.  Tue  tlciign  of  it.  The  practical  part  of  it  exccUenily  managed 
under  the  two  ways  of  light  and  darkness. 

1.  THE  proper,  and  (if  I  may  so  term  it)  original 
name  of  this  apostle  (for  with  that  title  St.  Luke,  and  af- 
ter him  the  ancients  constantly  honour  him)  was  Joses, 
by  a  softer  termination  familiar  with  the  Greeks  for  Jo- 
seph, and  so  the  king's,  and  several  other  manuscript  co- 
pies read  it.  It  was  the  name  giAcn  him  at  his  circum- 
sion,  in  honour  no  doubt  of  Joseph,  one  of  the  great  pa- 
triarchs of  their  nation,  to  which  after  his  embracing 
Christianity,  the  apostles  added  that  of  Barnabas  ;  Josesy 
who  by  the  apostles  ivas  sirnamed  Barnabas,  either  im- 
plying him  a  son  of  prophecy,  eminent  for  his  prophetic 
gifts  and  endowments,  or  denoting  him  (what  was  a  pe- 


120  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

culiar  part  of  the  prophet's  office)  a  son  of  consolation^* 
for  his  admirable  dexterity  in  erecting  troubled  minds, 
and  leading  them  on  by  the  most  mild  and  gentle  me- 
thods of  persuasion:  though  I  rather  conceive  him  so 
styled  for  his  generous  charity  in  refreshing  the  bowels 
of  the  saints ;  especially  since  the  name  seems  to  have 
been  imposed  upon  him  upon  that  occasion.**  He  was 
born  in  Cyprus,  a  noted  island  in  the  Mediterranean  sea, 
lying  between  Cilicia,  Syria,  and  Egypt;  a  large  and  fer- 
tile country,  the  theatre,  anciently,  of  no  less  than  nine 
several  kingdoms,  so  fruitful  and  richly  furnished  with 
all  things  that  can  minister  either  to  the  necessity  or 
pleasure  of  man's  life,  that  it  was  of  old  called  Macaria,  or 
The  Happy  ;  and  the  historian  reports,  that  Fortius  Cato 
ha^'ing  conquered  this  island,  brought  hence,  greater 
treasures  into  the  exchequer  at  Rome,  than  had  been 
done  in  any  other  triumph. "=  But  in  nothing  was  it  more 
happy,  or  upon  any  account  more  memorable  in  the  re- 
cords of  the  church,  than  that  it  was  the  birthplace  of 
our  apostle,  whose  ancestors  in  the  troublesome  times  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  or  in  the  conquest  of  Judea  by 
Pompey  and  the  Roman  army,  had  fled  over  hither  (as  a 
place  best  secured  from  violence  and  invasion)  and  set- 
tled here. 

2.  He  was  descended  of  the  tribe  ofLevi^  and  the  line 
of  the  priesthood,  which  rendered  his  conversion  to 
Christianity  the  more  remarkable,  all  interests  concur- 
ring to  leaven  him  with  mighty  prejudices  against  the 
Christian  faith.  But  the  grace  of  God  delights  many 
times  to  exert  itself  against  the  strongest  opposition,  and 
loves  to  conquer  where  there  is  least  probability  to 
overcoTiie.  His  parents  were  rich  and  pious,  and  finding 
him  a  beautiful  and  hopeful  youth  (says  my  ''author,  de- 
riving his  intelligence  concerning  him,  as  he  tells  us, 
from  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  and  other  ancient  writers) 

a.  K*/  cToKsT  (.txi  ciTo  t  tlcnii;  tlAn^ivat  to  cvo^st,  a;  iirfli  tSto  »>cavo;  oii',  ^  'iVir^Su®' . 
Clirsi-ist   Hoiiiil.  XI.  in  Act.  App.  p.  5C9. 

b  Vid.  Notker.  M;.rtyr.  ad.  111.  Id.  Jiin.  np.  Canis.  Antiq.  I.ect.  Tom.  6. 
c  L.  Flor.  lib.  o.  c.  ^.[^.(iT.  d  AIi^.x.  Mnmcli.  Enroni.  S.  iJrirnab.  inter  vitat 
S.Mctaph.  ext;it.  ap.  kuv.  ad.  Jur..  XT.  p.  I'U.  vid.  it).  ii.4,  J,  U- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  121 

they  sent,  or  brought  him  to  Jerusalem,  to  be  trained  up 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  to  that  end  committed 
him  to  the  tutorage  of  Gamaliel,  the  great  doctor  of  the 
law,  and  most  famous  master  at  that  time  in  Israel,  at 
whose  foot  he  was  brought  up  together  Avith  St.  Paul ; 
which  if  so,  might  lay  an  early  foundation  of  that  inti- 
mate familiarity  that  was  afterw^ards  between  them. 
Here  he  improved  in  learning  and  piety,  frequenting 
the  temple,  and  devoutly  exercising  himself  in  fasting 
and  prayer.*^  We  are  further  told,  that  being  a  fre- 
quent spectator  of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  and  among 
the  rest,  of  his  curing  the  paralytic  at  the  pool  of 
Bethesda,  he  was  soon  convinced  of  his  divinity,  and 
persuaded  to  deliver  up  himself  to  his  discipline  and 
institutions :  and  as  the  nature  of  the  true  goodness 
is  ever  communicative,  he  presently  went  and  acquaint- 
ed his  sister  Mary  with  the  notice  of  the  Messiah, 
who  hastened  to  come  to  him,  and  importuned  him  to 
come  home  to  her  house,  where  our  Lord  afterwards 
(as  the  church  continued  to  do  after  his  decease) 
was  wont  to  assemble  with  his  disciples,  and  that  her 
son  Mark  was  that  young  man^^  who  bore  the  pitcher  of 
water,  whom  our  Lord  commanded  the  two  disciples 
to  follow  home,  and  there  prepare  for  the  celebration 
of  the  passover. 

3.  But  however  that  was,  he  doubdess  continued 
with  our  Lord  to  the  last,  and  after  his  ascension  stood 
fair  to  be  chosen  one  of  the  twelve,  if  it  be  true  (what 
is  generally  taken  for  gi-anted,  though  I  think  without 
any  reason,  ^Chrysostom  I  am  sure  enters  his  dissent) 
that  he  is  the  same  with  Joseph  called  Barsabas,  who 
was  put  candidate  with  Matthias  for  the  apostolate  in 
the  room  of  Judas.  However  that  he  was  one  of  the 
Seventy  'Clemens  Alexandrinus  expressly  affirms,  as 
others  do  after  him.  And  when  the  necessities  of  the 
church  daily  increasing,  required  more  than  ordinaiy  sup- 
plies, he  according  to  the  free  and  noble  spirit  of  those 

f  Ibid.  n.  VII.  gMarkxiv.  13.  h  Loc.  supr.  citat.  i  Strom. 

1.  2.  p.  410.    Euseb.  H .  Eccl.  1.  2.  c.  1.  p.  38.  ex  Clem.  Hj-pot.  1.7.  Chro.  Alex. 
pag.  530, 


122  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

times,  having;  lands  of  good  value,  sold  them  and  laid  the 
money  at  the  apostles''  feet.  If  it  be  inquired  how  a  Le- 
vite  came  by  lands  and  possessions,  when  the  Mosaic 
law  allowed  them  no  particular  portions  but  what  were 
made  by  public  provision,  it  needs  no  other  answer  than 
to  suppose  that  this  estate  was  his  patrimonial  inheritance 
in  Cyprus,  where  the  Jewish  constitutions  did  not  take 
place  :  and  surely  an  estate  it  was  of  very  considerable 
value,  and  the  parting  with  it  a  greater  charity  than  or- 
dinary, othenvise  the  sacred  historian  would  not  have 
made  such  a  particular  remark  concerning  it. 

4.  The  church  being  dispersed  up  and  down  after  St. 
Stephen's  martyrdom,  we  have  no  certain  account  what 
became  of  him,  in  all  probability  he  staid  with  the  apos- 
tles at  Jerusalem,  where  we  find  him  not  long  after  St. 
Paul's  conversion.  For  that  fierce  and  active  zealot  be- 
ing miraculously  taken  off  in  the  height  of  his  rage  and 
fury,  and  putting  on  now  the  innocent  and  inoffensive 
temper  of  a  lamb,  came  after  some  little  time  to  Jerusa- 
lem, and  addressed  himself  to  the  church.  But  they  not 
satisfied  in  the  reality  of  his  change,  and  feaiing  it  might 
be  nothing  but  a  subtle  artifice  to  betray  them,  universally 
shunned  his  company  ;  and  what  wonder  if  the  harmless 
sheep  fled  at  the  sight  of  the  wolf  that  had  made  such 
havock  of  the  flock:  till  Barnabas  presuming  probably 
upon  his  former  acquaintance,  entered  into  a  more  fa- 
miliar converse  with  him,  introduced  him  to  the  apostles, 
and  declared  to  them  the  manner  of  his  conversion,  and 
what  signal  evidences  he  had  given  of  it  at  Damascus  in 
his  bold  and  resolute  disputations  with  the  Jews. 

5.  There  is  that  scattereth^  and  yet  increaseth  :  the  dis- 
persion of  the  church  by  Saul's  persecution  proved  the 
mieans  of  a  more  plentiful  harvest,  the  Christian  religion 
being  hereby  on  all  hands  conveyed  both  to  Jews  and 
Gentiles.  Among  the  rest  some  Cyprian  and  Cyrenean 
converts  went  to  Antiochj^'where  they  preached  the  gospel 
with  mighty  success ;  great  numbers  both  of  Jews  and 
proselytes  (wherewith  that  city  did  abound)  heartily  em- 

k  Acts  11.  20. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  123 

bracing  the  Christian  faith.  The  news  whereof  coming 
to  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem,  they  sent  down  Barnabas  to 
take  an  account  of  it,  and  to  settle  this  new  plantation. 
Being  come  he  rejoiced  to  see  that  Christianty  had  made 
so  fair  a  progress  in  that  great  city,  earnestly  pressing 
them  cordially  and  constantly  to  persevere  in  that  excel- 
lent religion  which  they  had  entertained  ;  himself  like  a 
pious  and  a  good  man  undergoing  any  labours  and  diffi- 
culties ;  which  God  was  pleased  to  crown  with  answer- 
able success,  the  addition  of  multitudes  of  new  converts 
to  the  faith.  But  the  work  was  too  great  to  be  managed 
by  a  single  hand :  to  furnish  himself  therefore  with  suit- 
able assistance,  he  went  to  Tarsus,  to  inquire  for  St. 
Paul  lately  come  thither.  Him  he  brings  back  with  him 
to  Antioch,  where  both  of  them  continued  industriously 
ministering  to  the  increase  and  establishment  of  the 
church  for  a  whole  year  together  ;  and  then  and  there  it 
was  that  the  disciples  of  the  holy  Jesus  had  the  honour- 
able name  of  Christians  first  solemnly  fixed  upon  them, 

6.  It  happened  about  this  time,  or  not  long  after,  that 
a  severe  famine  (foretold  by  Agabus,  a  Christian  prophet, 
that  came  down  to  Antioch)  pressed  upon  the  provinces 
of  the  Roman  empire,  and  especially  Judea,  whereby  the 
Christians,  whose  estates  were  exhausted  by  their  con- 
tinual contributions  for  the  maintenance  of  the  poor, 
were  reduced  to  great  extremities.  The  church  of  An- 
tioch compassionating  their  miserable  case,  agreed  upon 
a  liberal  and  charitable  supply  for  their  relief,  w^hich  they 
mtrusted  with  Barnabas  and  Paul,  whom  they  sent  along 
with  it  to  the  governors  of  the  churches,  that  they  might 
dispose  it  as  necessity  did  require.  This  charitable  em- 
bassy the  Greek  rituals  no  doubt  respect,  when  in  the 
office  at  the  promotion  of  the  MagnusjOeconomus,  or 
high  steward  of  the  church'  (whose  place  it  was  to  ma- 
nage and  dispose  of  the  church's  revenues)  they  make 
particular  mention  of  the  holy  and  most  famous  Barnabas 
the  apostle^  and  generous  martyr.  Having  discharged 
their  trust,  they  returned  back  from  Jerusalem  to  An- 

l  Ritual.  Grjccor.ln  promot.  Oeconom.  p.  281. 


124  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

tioch,"  bringing  along  with  them  John  sirnamed  Mark, 
the  son  of  Mary,  sister  to  Barnabas  whose  house  was 
the  sanctuary,  where  the  church  found  both  shelter  for 
their  persons,  and  conveniency  for  the  solemnities  of 
their  worship. 

7.  The  church  of  Antioch  being  now  sufficiently  pro- 
vided of  spiritual  guides,  our  two  apostles  might  be  the 
better  spared  for  the  conversion  of  the  Gentile  world. 
As  they  were  therefore  engaged  in  the  duties  of  fasting 
and  prayer,  and  other  public  exercises  of  their  religion, 
the  spirit  of  God  by  some  prophetic  afflatus  or  revelation 
made  to  some  of  the  prophets  there  present,  commanded 
that  Barnabas  and  Saul  should  be  set  apart  to  that  pecu- 
liar ministry,  to  which  God  had  designed  them.  Ac- 
cordingly having  fasted  and  prayed,  hands  were  solemnly 
laid  upon  them,  to  denote  their  particular  designation 
to  that  service.  Imposition  of  hands  had  been  a  cere- 
mony of  ancient  date.  Even  among  the  Gentiles  they 
were  wont  to  design  persons  to  public  functions  and  of- 
fices  by  lifting  up,  or  stretching  out  the  hand,  whereby 
they  gave  their  votes  and  suffrages  for  those  employ- 
ments. But  herein  though  they  did ;t"S''T«>'"'''  stretch  forth^ 
they  did  not  lay  on  their  hands  ;  which  was  the  proper  ce- 
remony in  use,  and  of  far  greater  standing  in  the  Jewish 
church.  When  Moses  made  choice  of  the  seventy  elders 
to  be  his  coadjutors  in  the  government,  it  was  (say  the 
Jews)  by  laying  hands  upon  them  :  and  when  he  consti- 
tuted Joshua  to  be  his  successor,  he  laid  his  hands  o?i 
him,  and  gave  him  the  charge  before  all  the  congregation. 
This  custom  they  constantly  kept  in  appointing  both  ci- 
vil and  ecclesiastical  officers,  and  that  not  only  while  their 
temple  and  polity  stood,  but  long  after  the  fall  of  their 
church  and  state.  For  so  "Benjamin,  the  Jew,  tells  us, 
that  in  his  time  all  the  Israelites  of  the  east,  when  they 
wanted  a  rabbin  or  teacher  in  their  synagogues,  were  wont 
to  bring  him  to  the  rh'\T\  U.*iV"i  as  they  called  him  the 
K\ici^rtKu'T:uLex'"''  or  head  of  the  captivity^  residing  at  Baby- 
lon (at  that  time  R,  Daniel,  the  son  of  Hasdai)  that  he 

m  Act.  :ul.  25.        n  Itincrar.  p.  7Z- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  12J 

might  receive  n*\tn"i  nriCDH  power  by  imposition  of 
hands  to  become  preacher  to  them.  From  the  Jews  it 
was,  together  with  some  other  rites,  transferred  into  the 
Christian  church,  in  ordaining  guides  and  ministers  of 
religion,  and  has  been  so  used  through  all  ages  and  pe- 
riods to  this  day.  Though  the  xf^-S-i!"*  and  tlie  ;yf;gi7oy/«  re 
not  of  equal  extent  in  the  writings  and  practice  of  the 
church;  the  one  implying  the  bare  rite  of  laying  on  of 
hands,  while  the  other  denotes  ordination  itself,  and  the 
entire  solemnity  of  the  action.  \\"hence  the  "apostolical 
constitutor,  speaking  of  the  presbyter's  interest  in  this 
affair,  says  ;ts-'c'S^««  K/:"g''7=>"^>  he  lai/s  on  his  hands,  but  he 
does  not  ordain;  meaning  it  of  the  custom  then,  and  ever 
since,  of  presbyters  laying  on  their  hands  together  with 
the  bishop  in  that  solemn  action. 

8.  Barnabas  and  Paul  having  thus  received  a  divine 
commission  for  the  apostleship  of  the  Gentiles,  and  taking 
IMark  along  with  them  as  their  minister  and  attendant, 
immediately  entered  upon  the  province.  And  hrst  they 
betook  themselves  to  Seleucia,  a  neighbouring  city  seat- 
ed upon  the  influx  of  the  river  Orontes  into  the  Mediter- 
ranean sea :  hence  they  set  sail  for  Cyprus,  Barnabas's 
native  country,  and  arrived  at  Salamis,  a  city  heretofore 
of  great  account,  the  ruins  whereof  are  two  miles  distant 
from  the  present  Famiagusta,  where  they  undauntedly 
preached  in  the  Jewish  synagogues.  From  Salamis  they 
travelled  up  the  island  to  Paphos,  a  city  remarkable  of 
old  for  the  worship  of  Venus,  Diva  potens  Cypri,  the  tu- 
telar goddess  of  the  island,  who  was  here  worshipped  v;ith 
the  most  wanion  and  immodest  rites,  and  had  a  famous 
temple  dedicated  to  her  for  that  purpose,  concerning 
which  the  inhabitants  have  a  ^tradition  that  at  St.  Barna- 
bas's  prayers  it  fell  flat  to  the  ground  ;  and  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  church  are  still  showed  to  travellers,  and  under  it 
an  arch,  where  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  shut  up  in  pri- 
son. At  this  place  was  the  court  or  residence  of  the 
praetor,  or  president  of  the  island  (not  properly  'A>3^xTaTa- 

0  Lib-  8.  c  23.  co).  494.  p  Cotovlc.  It:n.  1. 1.  c  15  p.  100. 


126  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS, 

1®',  the  proconsul,  for  Cyprus  was  not  a  proconsular  but 
a  praetorian  province)  who  being  altogether  guided  by 
the  counsels  and  sorceries  of  Bar-Jesus,  an  eminent  magi- 
cian, stood  off  from  the  proposals  of  Christianity,  till  the 
magician  being  struck  by  St.  Paul  with  immediate  blind- 
ness for  his  malicious  opposition  of  the  gospel,  this 
quickly  determined  the  governor's  belief,  and  brought 
him  over  a  convert  to  that  religion,  which,  as  it  made  the 
best  offers,  so  he  could  not  but  see  had  the  strongest 
evidences  to  attend  it. 

9.  Leaving  Cyprus,  they  sailed  over  to  Perga  in  Pam- 
phylia,  famous  for  a  templeof  Diana  ;**  here  Mark,  weary 
it  seems  of  this  itinerant  course  of  life,  and  the  unavoid- 
able dangers  that  attended  it,  took  his  leave  and  returned 
to  Jerusalem,  which  laid  the  foundation  of  an  unhappy 
difference,  that  broke  out  between  these  two  apostles  af- 
terwards. The  next  place  they  came  to  was  Antioch  in 
Pisidia,  where  in  the  Jewish  synagogue  St.  Paul,  by  an 
elegant  oration  converted  great  numbers  both  of  Jews  and 
proselytes,  but  a  persecution  being  raised  by  others, 
they  were  forced  to  desert  the  place.  Thence  they  pas- 
sed to  Iconium,  a  noted  city  of  Lycaonia,  where  in  the 
synagogues  they  preached  a  long  time  with  good  success, 
till  a  conspiracy  being  made  against  them,  they  withdrew 
to  Lystra,  the  inhabitants  whereof  upon  a  miraculous 
cure  done  by  St.  Paul,  treated  them  as  gods  come  down 
from  heaven  in  human  shape  ;  St.  Paul,  as  being  princi- 
pal speaker,  they  termed  Mercury  the  interpreter  of  the 
gods  ;  Barnabas  they  looked  upon  as  Jupiter,  their  sove- 
reign deity,  either  because  of  his  age,  or  (as'^Chrysostom 
thinks)  because  he  was  aTs  T^'oisacoi^K^gsTk,  for  the  gravity 
andcomelinessof  hisperson,  being  (as  antiquity  represents 
him)  a  very  goodly  man,  and  of  a  venerable  aspect,  where- 
in he  had  infinitely  the  advantage  of  St.  Paul,  who  was  of 
a  verymean  and  contemptible  presence.  But  the  malice 
of  the  Jews  pursued  them  hither,  and  prevailed  with  the 
people  to  stone  St.  Paul,  who  presently  recovering,  he 
and  Barnabas  went  to  Derbe,  where,  when  they  had  con- 

q   Act.  xiij.  13.  r  Hoinil.  XZX.  in  Act,  App.  p.  361. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  127 

verted  many  to  the  faith,  they  returned  back  to  Lystrs, 
Iconiiim  and  Antioch,  and  so  through  PisidiatoPamphy- 
lia,  thence  from  Perga  to  Attalia,  confirming  as  they 
came  back  the  churches  which  they  had  planted  at  theii 
first  going  out.  At  Attaha  they  took  ship,  and  sailed  to 
Antioch  in  Syria,  the  place  whence  they  had  first  set  out, 
where  they  gave  the  church  an  account  of  the  whole  suc- 
cess of  their  tra\'els,  and  what  way  w^as  made  for  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  in  the  Gentile  world. 

10.  The  restless  enemy  of  all  goodness  was  vexed  to 
see  so  fair  and  smooth  a  progress  of  the    gospel,    and 
therefore  resolved  to  attempt  it  by  the  old  subtle  arts  of 
intestine  divisions  and  animosities  :  what  the  envious  man 
could  not  stifle  by  open  violence,  he  sought  to  choke  by 
sowing   tares.^     Some    zealous  converts  coming  down 
from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  started   this  notion,  which 
they  asserted  with  all  possible  zeal  and  stiffness,  that  un- 
less together  with  the  Christian  religion  they  joined  the 
observance  of  the  Mosaic  rites,  there  could  be  no  hopes 
of  salvation  for  them.   Paul  and  Barnabas  opposed  them- 
selves against  this  heterodox  opinion  with  all  vigour  and 
smartness,  but  not  able  to  beat  it  down,  were  despatched 
by  the  church  to  advise  with  the  apostles  and  brethren  at 
Jerusalem  about  this  matter.     Whither   they  were  no 
sooner  come,  but  they  were  kindly  and  courteously  en- 
tertained, and  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  given  them  by 
the  three  great  apostles,  Peter,  James,  and  John,  and  an 
agreement  made  between  them,  that  wherever  they  came, 
they  should  betake  themselves  to  the  Jews,  while  Paul 
and  Barnabas  applied  themselves  unto  the  Gentiles.  And 
here  probably  it  was  that  Mark  reconciled  himself  to  his 
uncle  Barnabas,  which  *one  tells  us  he  did  with  tears  and 
great  importunity,  earnestly  begging  him  to  forgive  his 
weakness  and  cowardice,  and  promising  for  the  future  a 
firmer  constancy  and  more  undaunted  resolution.     But 
they  were  especially  careful  to  mind  the  great  affair  they 
were  sent  about,  and  accordingly  opened  the  case  in  a 
public  council  convened  for  that  purpose.     And  Peter 

a    Act.  XV.  1.  t  Alexand.  Monacb.  ubi  supr.  n.  XV. 


128  THE  LIEE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

having  first  given  his  sentence,  that  the  Gentile  converts 
were  under  no  such  obligation,  Paul  and  Barnabas  ac- 
quainted the  synod  what  great  things  God  by  their  mi- 
nistry had  wrought  for  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  a 
plain  evidence  that  they  were  accepted  by  God  without 
the  Mosaic  rites  and  ceremonies.  The  matter  being  de- 
cided by  the  council,  the  determination  was  drawn  up 
into  the  form  of  a  synodical  epistle,  which  was  delivered 
to  Barnabas  and  Paul,  to  whom  the  council  gave  this  elo- 
gium  and  character,  that  they  were  men  that  had  hazarded 
their  lives  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christy  with 
wdiom  the}' joined  two  of  their  own,  that  they  might  car- 
ry it  to  the  churches.  Being  come  to  Antioch  they  de- 
livered the  decrees  of  the  council,  wherewith  the  church 
was  abundantly  satisfied  ;  and  the  controversy  for  the 
present  laid  asleep. 

11.  It  was  not  long  after  this,  that  St.  Peter  came  down 
to  Antioch, "  who  loth  to  exasperate  the  zealous  Jews, 
withdrevv  all  converse  with  the  Gentile  converts,  contrary 
to  his  former  practice,  and  his  late  vote  and  suffrage  in 
the  Synod  at  Jerusalem.  The  minds  of  the  Gentiles 
were  Q-reatlv  disturbed  at  this,  and  the  convert  Jews 
tempted  by  his  example,  abstain  from  all  communion 
with  the  Gentiles  ;  nay,  so  strong  was  the  temptation,  that 
St.  Barnabas  himself  was  carried  down  the  stream,  and  be- 
gan now  to  scruple,  whether  it  was  lawful  to  hold  com- 
numion  u'ith  the  Gentiles,  with  whom  before  he  had  so 
familiarly  conversed,  and  been  so  eminently  instrumental 
in  their  conversion  to  Christianity.  So  prevalent  an  in- 
fluence has  the  example  of  a  great  or  a  good  man  to  de- 
termine others  to  what  is  good  or  bad.  How  careful 
should  we  be  w4iat  course  we  take,  lest  we  seduce  and 
compel  others  to  walk  in  our  crooked  paths,  and  load  our- 
selves with  the  guilt  of  those  that  follow  after  us?  St. 
Paul  shortly  after  propounded  to  Barnabas  that  they  might 
again  visit  the  churches  wherein  they  had  lately  planted 
the  Christian  faith :  he  liked  the  motion,  but  desired  his 
uousin  Mark  might  again  go  along  with  them,  which  St. 

u  Gal  3.  II. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  129 

Paul  would  by  no  means  consent  to,  having  found  by  his 
cowardly  deserting  them  at  Pamphylia,  how  unfit  he  was 
for  such  a  troublesome  and  dangerous  service.  This  be- 
gat a  sharp  contest,  and  ripened  into  almost  an  irrecon- 
cilable difference  between  these  two  holy  men.  Which 
as  at  once  it  shows,  that  the  best  are  men  of  like  passions 
and  infirmities  with  others,  subject  to  be  transported  with 
partiality,  and  carried  off  with  the  heats  of  an  irregular 
passion,  so  it  lets  us  see  hoiv  great  a  matter  a  little  jire 
kindles,  and  how  inconsiderable  an  occasion  may  minister 
to  strife  and  division,  and  hazard  the  breach  of  the  firmest 
charity  and  friendship.  The  issue  was  that  the  ts  i;-^.-^®- 
Ti  Uer,y  (as  "  Theodoret  styles  these  two  apostles)  this  sacred 
pair,  that  had  hitherto  equally  and  unanimously  drawn 
the  yoke  of  the  gospel,  now  drew  several  ways,  and  in 
some  discontent  parted  from  each  other  ;  St.  Paul  taking 
Silas  went  to  the  churches  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  while  Bar- 
nabas, accompanied  with  his  cousin  Mark,  set  sail  for 
Cyprus,  his  own  countrj'. 

12.  Thus  fiir  the  sacred  historian  has  for  the  main  gone 
before  us,  who  here  breaks  off  his  accounts  concerning 
him.  What  became  of  him  afterwards  we  are  left  under 
great  uncertainty.  ^  Dorotheus  and  the  '' author  of  the 
Recognitions,  and  some  other  writings  attributed  to  St. 
Clemens,  make  him  to  have  been  at  Rome,  and  one  of 
the  first  that  preached  the  Christian  faith  in  that  city  ;  for 
which  •  Baronius  falls  foul  upon  them^  not  being  willing 
that  any  should  be  thought  to  have  been  there  before  St. 
Peter,  though  after  him  (and  it  is  but  good  manners  to 
let  him  go  first)  he  is  not  unwilling  to  grant  his  being 
there.  Leaving  therefore  the  difference  in  point  of  time, 
let  us  see  what  we  find  there  concerning  him.  At  his 
first  arrival  there  about  autumn  he  is  said  thus  publicly  to 
have  addressed  himself  to  the  people,  -Av/^s^paY/aTs/  dK-Ua.rt. 
*'  O  ye  Romans  give  ear.     The  Son  of  God  has  appear- 

V  Comment,  in  Esa.  11.  p.  55.  Tom.  2. 
\v  Doroth.  Synops.  Bibl.  PP.  Tom.  3.  p.  148.  col.  2. 

X  Recogn.  lib.  1.  c.  7.  p.  400.  edit.  Paris.  1672.  Clementin.  Homil.  1.  c.  7.  p. 
549.  ib.  Epit.  de  Gest.  B.  Petr.  c.  7.  ib.  p.  752. 
y  Baron,  ad  Ann.  51.  u.  52.  54.  not.  ad  Martyr.  Rom.  p.  359. 


130  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 


''  ed  in  the  country  of  Judea,  promising  eternal  life  to 
*'  all  that  are  willing  to  embrace  it,  and  to  lead  their  lives 
"  according  to  the  will  of  the  father  that  sent  him. 
*'  Wherefore  change  your  course  of  life,  and  turn  from  a 
*'  worse  to  a  better  state,  from  things  temporal  to  those 
*'  that  are  eternal,  rjxknowledge  that  there  is  one  only  God, 
**  who  is  in  heaven,  and  whose  world  you  unjustly  possess 
"  before  his  righteous  face.  But  if  you  reform,  and 
"  live  according  to  his  laws,  you  shall  be  translated  into 
*'  another  world,  where  you  shall  become  immortal,  and 
*'  enjoy  the  ineffable  glories  and  happiness  of  that  state. 
*'  Whereas  if  you  persist  in  your  infidelity,  your  souls 
*•  after  the  dissolution  of  these  bodies,  shall  be  cast  into 
*'  a  place  of  flames,  where  they  shall  be  eternally  torment- 
*'  ed  under  the  anguioh  of  an  unprofitable  and  too  late 
*'  repentance.  For  the  present  life  is  to  every  one  the 
"  only  space  and  season  of  repentance."  This  was 
spoken  with  great  plainness  and  simplicity,  and  without 
any  artificial  schemes  of  speech,  and  accordingly  took 
with  the  attentive  populacy  :  while  the  philosophers  and 
more  inquisitive  heads  entertained  the  discourse  with 
scorn  and  laughter,  (this  indeed  the  ''author  of  the 
Td  Kx>j/>t*v7w  and  the  ''Epitome  ngi|sa.v,  somewhat  differently 
from  the  Recognitions,  refers  to  his  being  at  Alexandria) 
setting  upon  him  with  captious  questions  and  syllogisms, 
and  sophistical  arts  of  reasoning.  But  he  taking  no  no- 
tice of  their  impertinent  questions,  went  on  in  his  plain 
discourse,  concluding  that  he  had  nakedly  laid  these 
things  before  them,  and  that  it  lay  at  their  door  whether 
they  would  reject  or  entertain  them  ;  that  for  his  part  he 
could  not  without  prejudice  to  himself  not  declare  them, 
nor  they  without  infinite  danger  disbelieve  them. 

}  3.  Departing  from  Rome,  he  is  by  different  writers 
made  to  steer  different  courses.  The  ^  Greeks  tell  us  he 
went  for  Alexandria,  and  thence  for  Judea  :  the  '^writers 
of  the  Roman  church  (with  whom  agrees  '^Dorotheus  in 

z  Clement,  ib.  c.  8,  9,  10.  a  Epitom.  c.  8.  fc  seq. 

b  Clem.  &,  Epitom.  ibid.  Alexand.  Monach.  loc.  cit.  n.  1",  14. 
c  Baron,  ad  An.  51.  n.  54.  Sanct.  de  pred.  S.  Jac.  Tr.  3.  c.  1'.  n.  9'. 
d  Synops.  in  Elbl.  PP.  p.  148.  T.  3. 


i 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  131 

this  matter)  that  he  preached  the  gospel  in  Ligiiria,  and 
founded  a  church  at  Milain,  whereof  he  became  the  first 
bishop,  propagating  Christianity  in  all  those  parts.     But 
however  that  was,  probable  it  is  that  in  the  last  periods  of 
his  life  he  returned  unto  Cyprus,  where  my  *  author  tells 
us,  he  converted  many,  till  some  Jews  from  Syria  coming 
to  Salamis,  where  he  then  was,  enraged  with  fury  set  up- 
on him  as  he  was  disputing  in  the  synagogue,  in  a  corner 
whereof  they  shut  him  up  till  night,  when  they  brought 
him  forth,  and  after  infinite  tortures,  stoned  him  to  death. 
He  adds  (and  the  faith  of  it  must  rest  upon  the  credit  of 
the  relater,  who  ^Baronius  tells  us,  lived  at  the  same  time 
"when  his  corpse  was  first  found  out)  that  they  threw  his 
body  into  the  fire  with  an  intent  to  consume  it,  but  that 
the  flames  had  not  the  least  power  upon  it,  and  that  Mark 
his  kinsman  privately  buried  it  in   a  cave  not  far  distant 
from  the  city,  his  friends  resenting  the  loss  with  solemn 
lamentation.     I  omit  the  miracles  reported  to  have  been 
done  at  his  tomb  :  the  remains  of  his  body  were  disco- 
vered in  the  reign  of  ^  Zeno  the  emperor  (''  Nicephorus  by 
a  mistake  makes  it  the  12th  year  of  Anastasius)  ami.  485, 
dug  up  under  a  bean  or  carob  tree,  and  upon  his  breast 
was  found  St.  Matthew's  gospel  written  with  Barnabas's 
own  hand,   which    Anthemius    the  bishop   took   along 
with  him  to  Constantinople,  where  it  was  received  by  the 
emperor  with  a  mighty  reverence,  and  laid  up  with  great 
care  and  diligence.     The  emperor  as  a  testimony  of  his 
joy,  honouring  the  epispocal  see  of  Salamis  with  this  pre- 
rogative, that  it  should  be  sedes  ^thTOKk^dLX®-,  independent 
upon  any  foreign  jurisdiction,  a  privilege  ratified  by  Jus- 
tinian the  emperor,  whose  wife  Theodora  was  a  Cypriot : 
the  emperor  also  greatly  enriched  the  bishop  at  his  re- 
turn, commanding  him  to  build  a  church  to  St.  Barna- 
bas over  the  place  of  his  interment,  which  was  accord- 
ingly  erected  with  more  than  ordinary  stateliness  and 
magnificence.     It  is  added  in  the  '  story,  that  these  re- 

e  Alexand.  ib.  n.  XVIII.  {jTseq.  f  Ad.  Ann.  485.  n.4.p.  428. 

g  Theod.  Lect.  H.  Eccl.l.  2.  p.  557.  Aiex.  Mon.  loc.  cit.  n.  XZZI. 
h  Niceph.  H.  Ecr.,  \.  16.  c.  37.  p.  716.  Tom.  2, 
i  Alex,  ut  supr.  n.  XZ5X,  XXZ. 


132  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

mains  were  discovered  by  the  notice  of  St.  Barnabas 
himself,  who  three  several  times  appeared  to  Anthemius ; 
which  I  behold  as  a  meer  addition  to  the  story,  designed 
only  to  serve  a  present  turn.  For  Peter  sirnamed  the 
Fuller,  then  patriarch  of  Antioch,  challenged  at  this  time 
a  jurisdiction  over  the  Cyprian  churches  as  subject  to  his 
see  ;  this  Anthemius  would  not  agree  to,  but  stiffly  as- 
serted his  own  rights,  and  how  easy  was  it  to  take  this 
occasion  of  finding  St.  Barnabas's  body,  to  add  that  of 
the  appearances  to  him,  to  gain  credit  to  the  cause,  and 
advance  it  with  the  emperor  ?  And  accordingly  it  had  its 
designed  effect ;  and  whoever  reads  the  whole  story,  and 
the  circumstances  of  the  apparitions  as  related  by  my  au- 
thor, will  see  that  they  seem  plainly  calculated  for  such  a 
purpose. 

14.  For  his  outward  form  and  shape,  he  is  thus  re- 
presented by  the  ''ancients.  He  was  a  man  of  a  comely 
countenance,  a  grave  and  venerable  aspect,  his  eye-brows 
short,  his  eye  chearful  and  pleasant,  darting  something  of 
majesty,  but  nothing  of  sourness  and  austerity,  his  speech 
sweet  and  obliging  ;  his  garb  was  mean,  and  such  as  be- 
came a  man  of  a  mortified  life,  his  gate  composed  and 
unaffected,  grave  and  decent.  This  elegant  structure 
was  but  the  lodging  of  a  more  noble  tenant,  a  soul  rich- 
ly furnished  with  divine  graces  and  virtues,  a  profound 
humility,  diffusive  charity,  firm  faith,  an  immoveable 
constancy,  and  an  unconquerable  patience,  a  mighty  zeal, 
and  an  unwearied  diligence  in  the  propagating  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  for  the  good  of  souls.  So  entirely  did  he  de- 
vote himself  to  an  ambulatory  course  of  life,  so  con- 
tinually was  he  employed  in  running  up  and  do\m  from 
place  to  place,  that  he  could  find  little  or  no  time  to 
leave  any  writings  behind  him  for  the  benefit  of  the 
church  ;  at  least  none  that  have  certainly  arrived  to  us. 
Indeed  anciently  there  were  some,  and '  TertuUian  parti- 
cularly, who  supposed  him  to  be  the  author  of  the  epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  an  opinion  generally  rejected  and  thrown 
out  of  doors  :  there  is  also  an  epistle  still  extant  under 

k  Id.ibid.  n.ZVIII. 

1  Uc  piKlicit.  c.  20.  p.  582.  vid.  rhilaslr.de  II»res.  c,  60. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS  133 

his  name  of  great  antiquity  frequently  cited  by  Clemens 
Alexanclrinus,  and  his  scholar  Origen  (to  pass  by  others) 
the  latter  of  whom  styles  it  the  Catholic  Epistle  of  Bar- 
nabas,"" but  placed  by  Eusebius"  among  the  t*^  vs^*,  the  wri- 
tings that  were  not  genuine.  The  frame  and  contexture  of 
it  is  intricate  and  obscure,  made  up  of  uncouth  allegories, 
forced  and  improbable  interpretations  of  scripture,  though 
the  main  design  of  it  is  to  show,  that  the  Christian  reli- 
gion has  superseded  the  rites  and  usages  of  the  Mosaic 
law.  The  latter  part  of  it  contains  an  useful  and  excel- 
lent exhortation  managed  under  the  notion  of  t\vo  ways, 
the  one  of  light,  the  other  of  darkness,  the  one  under 
the  conduct  of  the  angels  of  God,  <puTa.ymyo)  j:yrtKii,  those  il- 
luminating ministers  as  he  calls  them)  the  other  under 
the  guidance  of  the  angels  of  Satan,  the  prince  of  the  ini- 
quity of  the  age.  Under  the  zvai/  of  light  he  presses  to 
most  of  the  particular  duties  and  instances  of  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  spiritual  life,  which  are  there  with  admirable 
accuracy  and  succinctness  reckoned  up.  Under  that  of 
darkness  he  represents  those  particular  sins  and  vices 
which  we  are  to  decline  and  shun  ;  and  I  am  confident 
the  pious  reader  will  not  think  it  time  lost,  nor  repent  his 
pains  to  peruse  so  ancient  and  useful  a  discourse.  Thus 
then  he  expresses  himself. 

15.  *'  The  way  of  life  is  this."  Whoever  travels  to- 
wards the  appointed  place,  will  hasten  by  his  works  to 
attain  to  it.  And  the  knowledge  that  is  given  us  how  to 
walk  in  the  way  is  this  :  Thou  shalt  love  thy  Creator. 
Thou  shalt  glorify  him  who  redeemed  thee  from  death. 
Thou  shalt  be  simple  in  heart,  and  being  rich  in  spirit 
shalt  not  join  thyself  to  him  that  vralks  in  the  wav  of 
death.  Thou  shalt  hate  to  do  that  w'hich  is  displeasing 
unto  God.  Thou  shalt  hate  ail  manner  of  hvpocrisy 
Thou  shalt  not  forsake  the  commandments  of  the  Lord. 
Exalt  not  thyself,  but  be  of  an  humble  mind.  Thou  shalt 
not  assume  glory  to  thyself.  Neither  shalt  thou  take  evil 
counsel  against  thy  neighbour.  Thou  shak  not  add  bold 


m  Contr.  Gels.  lib.  1.  p.  49.  n  H,  Ecc!.  J.  3.  c.  25.  p.  97.  •  Bamab 

Epist.  p.  24S,  Edit.  Voss. 


134  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

ness  to  thy  soul.    Thou  shalt  not  commit  fornication,  nor 
be  guihy  of  adultery  or  buggery.     Thou  shalt  not  ne- 
glect God's  command  in  correcting  other  men's  impurity, 
nor  shalt  thou   have  respect  of  persons,  when  thou  re- 
provest  any  man  for  his  faults.     Thou  shalt  be  meek  and 
silent,  and  stand  in  awe  of  the  words  which  thou  hearest. 
Thou  shalt  not  remember  evil  against  thy  brother.  Thou 
shalt  not  be  of  a  double  and  unstable  mind,  doubting  whe- 
thus  or  thus      Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord 
in  vain.P     Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  above  thy  life. 
Thou  shalt  not  destroy  a  child  by  abortion,  nor  make  it 
away  when  it  is  born.    Thou  shaft  not  withhold  thy  hand 
from  thy  son,  or  from  thy  daughter,  but  from  their  youth 
shalt  teach  them  the  fear  of  the  Lord.     Be  not  desirous 
of  thy  neighbour's  goods,  nor  covet  much.    Neither  shalt 
thou  heartily  join  with  the  proud,  but  shalt  be  numbered 
with  the  just  and  the  humble.    Entertain  trials  and  temp- 
tations when  they  happen  to  thee,  as  instruments  of  good. 
Thou  shalt  not  be  double   minded,    nor  of  a  deceitful 
tongue,  for  a  double  tongue  is  the  snare  of  death.  Thou 
shalt  be  subject  to  the  Lord,  and  to  masters,  as  God's  re- 
presentatives, in  reverence   and   fear      Thou  shalt  not 
command  thy  maid  or  man  servant  with  bitterness  and 
severity,  those  especially  that  hope  in  God,  lest  thou  thy- 
self prove  one  that  fearest  not  him,  who  is   over  both:. 
For  he  came  not  to  call  men  according  to  outwai'd  ap- 
pearance, but  those  whom  his  spirit  did  prepare.     Thou 
bhalt  communicate  to  thy  neighbour  in  all  things,  and 
shalt  not  call  what  thou  hast  thine  own:    For  if  ye  mu- 
tually partake  in  incorruptible  things,  how  much  more  in 
things  that  are  corruptible.    Be  not  rash  with  thy  tongue, 
for  the  mouth  is  the  snare   of  death.     Keep  thy  soul  as 
chaste  as  thou  canst,  stretch  not  fordi  thy  hands  to  take, 
and  shut  them  when  thou  shouldst  irive.     Love  all  those 
that  speak  to  thee  the  word  of  the  Lord,  as  the  apple  of 
thine  eye.     Remember  the  day  of  judgment  night  and 
day.  Seek  out  daily  tlie  faces  of  holy  men,  and  searching 
by  the  word,  go  forth  to  exhort,  and  by  it  study  to  save 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS.  135 

a  soul.  And  with  thy  hands  shah  thou  labour  for  the 
redemption  of  thy  sins.  Delay  not  to  give,  nor  begrutch 
Avhen  thou  art  charitable.  Give  to  every  one  that  asks 
thee;  and  thou  shalt  know  who  is  the  good  recompenser 
of  the  reward.  Thou  shalt  keep  the  things  which  thou 
hast  received,  neither  adding  to  them,  nor  taking  from 
them.  Thou  shalt  ever  hate  a  wicked  person.  Judge 
righteously.  Make  no  schism.  Make  peace  between 
those  that  are  at  difference,  reconciling  them  to  each 
other.  Confess  thy  sins,  and  come  not  to  prayer  with 
an  evil  conscience.     This  is  the  way  of  light. 

16.  "  But  now  the  way  of  darkness  is  crooked  and  full 
of  curses.  For  it  is  the  way  of  eternal  death  attended 
w^ith  punishment :  wherein  are  things  destructive  to 
their  souls,  idolatry,  audaciousness,  height  of  domina- 
tion, hypocrisy,  double-heartedness,  adulter}',  murder, 
rapine,  pride,  transgression,  deceit,  malice,  arrogance, 
witchcraft,  magic,  covetousness,  want  of  the  fear  of  God. 
Persecutors  of  good  men,  haters  of  the  truth,  men  who 
love  but  do  not  know  the  wages  of  righteousness.  Per- 
sons that  adhere  not  to  what  is  good,  nor  who  by  righte- 
ous judgment  regard  the  case  of  the  widow  and  the  or- 
phan ;  vv^atchful  not  for  the  fear  of  God,  but  for  what  is 
evil :  great  strangers  to  meekness  and  patience.  Lovers 
of  vanity,  greedy  of  revenge,  who  compassionate  not  the 
poor,  nor  endeavour  to  relieve  the  oppressed,  prone  to 
detraction,  not  knowing  their  maker,  murderers  of  chil- 
dren, defacers  of  God's  workmanship,  such  as  turn  away 
themselves  from  the  needy,  add  affliction  to  the  afflicted, 
plead  for  the  rich,  and  unjustly  judge  the  poor,  sinners 
altogether."  And  having  thus  described  these  two  dif- 
ferent ways,  he  concludes  his  discourse  with  a  hearty  and 
passionate  exhortation,  that  since  the  time  of  rewards  and 
punishments  was  drawing  on,  they  would  mind  these 
things,  as  those  that  were  taught  of  God,  searching  after 
what  God  required  of  them,  and  setting  themselves  to  the 
practice  of  it,  that  they  might  be  saved  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment.    I  have  no  more  to  remark  concerning  this  ex-- 


136  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 

cellent  person,  than  to  add  the  character  given  of  him  by 
a  pen  that  could  not  err,^  he  was  a  good  man^fulloffaithy 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

q  Acts  XI.  24. 


i 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY, 

THE  APOSTLE  AND  EVANGELIST. 


St.  Timothy's  country  and  kindred.  His  religious  education.  The  great 
advantages  of  an  eai-ly  piety.  Converted  to  Christianity  by  St.  Paul, 
and  made  choice  of  to  be  his  companion-  Circumciied  by  St.  Paul,  and 
■why.  This  no  contradicting  St.  Paul's  doctrine  concerning  Circumci- 
sion. His  travels  with  St.  Paul  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith.  His 
return  from  Thessalonica,  and  St.  Paul's  two  epistles  to  that  church. 
St.  Timothy  consecrated  bishop  of  Ephesus.  The  consent  of  antiquity 
herein.  Ordination  in  those  times  usually  done  by  prophetic  debigua- 
tion,  and  the  reason  of  it.  Timothy's  age  inquired  into.  The  import  • 
ance  of  n®"  and  >£ct«;  (let  no  man  despibe  thy  youth,)  the  wurds  showed 
to  be  used  by  the  best  writers  for  a  considerable  age.  St.  Paul's  first 
and  second  epistle  to  him,  and  the  importance  of  them.  The  manners 
of  the  Ephesians  noted.  Their  festival  called  KaLlaytiyiov.  St.  Timothy's 
martyi'dom.  The  time  of  his  death,  place  of  iiis  burial,  and  translalicn 
of  his  body.  His  weak  and  infirm  constitution.  His  great  abstinence, 
and  admirable  zeal.  St.  Paul's  singular  affection  for  him.  Different 
from  Timotheus  in  St.  Denys  the  Areopagite.  Another  Timothy,  St. 
Paul's  disciple,  martyred  under  Antonmus. 

1.  ST.  TIMOTHY  was,  as  we  may  probably  conceive, 
a  Lycaonian,  born  at  Lystra,  a  noted  city  of  that  province. 
He  was  a  person  in  whom  the  Jew,  the  Gentile,  and  the 
Christian  met  altogether.  His  father  was  by  birth  a  Greek, 
by  religion  a  Gentile,  or  if  a  proselyte,  at  most  but  «ii*in 
^j  a  proselyte  of  the  gate,  who  did  not  oblige  themselves 
to  circumcision,  and  the  rites  of  Moses,  but  only  to  the 
observance  of  the  seveji  precepts  of  the  sovs  of  A'oah  .•''  his 
mother  Eunice,  daughter  to  the  devout  and  pious  Lois, 
was  a  Jewess,  who  yet  scrupled  not  to  marry  with  this 

Homil.  1.  in  2  Tim.  p   162?:. 


138  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

Greek.  An  argument  that  the  partition  wall  noAV  totter- 
ed, and  was  ready  to  fall,  when  Jew  and  Gentile  began 
thus  to  match  together.  His  mother  and  grandmother 
were  women  very  eminently  virtuous  and  holy,  and  seem 
to  have  been  amongst  the  first  that  were  converted  to  the 
Christian  faith.  Nor  was  it  the  least  instance  of  their 
piety,  the  care  they  took  of  his  education,  instructing 
him  in  the  knowledge  of  divine  things,  and  seasoning  his 
tender  years  with  virtuous  and  sober  principles,  so  that 
from  a  child  he  was  acquainted  with  the  holy  scriptures^ 
whereby  he  was  admirably  prepared  for  the  reception  of 
Christianity,  and  furnished  for  the  conduct  of  a  strict  pious 
life  "^  And  indeed  religion  never  thrives  more  kindly, 
than  when  it  is  planted  betimes,  and  the  foundations  of  it 
laid  in  an  early  piety.  For  the  mind  being  then  soft  and 
tender,  is  easily  capable  of  the  best  impressions,  which  by 
degrees  insinuate  themselves  into  it,  and  insensibly  re- 
concile it  to  the  difficulties  of  an  holy  life,  so  that  what 
must  necessarily  be  harsh  and  severe  to  a  man  that  endea- 
vours to  rescue  himself  from  an  habitual  course  of  sin, 
the  other  is  unacquainted  with,  and  goes  on  smoothly  in 
a  way  that  is  become  pleasant  and  delightful.  None 
start  with  greater  advantages,  nor  usually  persevere  with 
a  more  vigorous  constancy,  than  they  who  remember 
their  Creator  in  the  days  of  their  youth,  and  sacrifice  the 
first  fruits  of  their  time  to  God  and  to  religion,  before 
corrupt  affections  have  clapt  a  bias  upon  their  inclinations, 
and  a  train  of  vices  depraved,  and  in  great  measure  laid 
asleep  the  natural  notions  of  good  and  evil, 

2.  Prepared  by  so  excellent  a  culture  in  the  Jewish  re- 
ligion, God  was  pleased  to  transplant  him  into  a  better 
soil.  St.  Paul  in  pursuance  of  his  commission  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles  had  come  as  far  as  Antioch 
in  Pisidia,  thence  to  Iconium,  and  so  to  Lystra,  where 
the  miraculous  cure  of  an  impotent  cripple  made  way  for 
the  entertainment  of  the  Christian  doctrine.  Among 
others  there  converted,  we  are**  told  were  St.  Timothy's 

b  2  Tim.  lii.  15. 

c.  n^j-w  5  fii^A  KOMntLyabiit^t  toy  fc,iti,u«  rv^^w  VAiiti^i.  Plut.  dc  liber,  cduc. 
p»g.  4. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY.  139 

parents,  who  courteously  treated  and  entertained  the 
apostle  at  their  house,  wholly  resigning  up  their  son  to  his 
care  and  conduct.**  About  two  years  after  in  his  review 
of  these  late  plantations  he  came  again  to  Lystra,  where 
he  made  choice  of  Timothy  ,*"  recommended  to  him  by  the 
universal  testimony  of  the  Christians  thereabouts,  as  an 
evangelist,  to  be  his  assistant  and  the  companion  of  his 
travels,  that  he  might  have  somebody  always  with  him, 
with  whom  he  could  intrust  matters  of  importance,  and 
whom  he  might  despatch  upon  any  extraordinary  affair 
and  exigence  of  the  church.  Indeed  Timothy  was  not 
circumcised,  for  this  being  a  branch  of  the  paternal  au- 
thority, did  not  lie  in  his  mother's  power  :  this  was  no- 
toriously known  to  all  the  Jews,  and  this  St.  Paul  knew 
would  be  a  mighty  prejudice  to  his  ministry  wherever 
he  came.  For  the  Jews  being  infinitely  zealous  for  cir- 
cumcision, would  not  with  any  tolerable  patience  endure 
any  man  to  preach  to  them,  or  so  much  as  to  converse 
with  them,  who  was  himself  uncircumcised.  That  this 
obstacle  therefore  might  be  removed,  he  caused  him  to 
be  circumcised,  becoming  in  lawful  matters  all  things  to 
all  meriy  that  he  might  gain  the  mo7'e.  Admirable  (says 
*^Chrysostom)  the  wisdom  and  prudence  of  St.  Paul,  who 
had  this  design  in  it,  ui^KTi/xiv,  hx  «3rfg/7o^iy  KaSsx?,  he  circumci- 
sed him,  that  he  might  take  away  circumcision,  that  is, 
be  the  more  acceptable  to  the  Jews,  and  by  that  means 
the  more  capable  to  undeceive  them  in  their  opinion  of 
the  necessity  of  those  legal  rites.  At  other  times  we  find 
him  smartly  contending  against  circumcision  as  a  justifi- 
cation of  the  Mosaic  institutions,  and  a  virtual  undermin- 
ing the  great  ends  of  Christianity.  IS  or  did  he  in  this 
instance  contradict  his  own  doctrine,  or  unwarrantably 
symbolize  with  the  Jews  ;  it  being  only  (as  ^  Clemens  of 
Alexandria  observes  concerning  this  passage)  a  prudent 
condescension  to  the  present  humour  of  the  Jews,  whom 
he  was  unwilling  to  disoblige,  and  make  them  wholly  fly 

d  S.  Metiphr.  de  S.  Timoth-  ap.  Snr.  ad  Jan.  2t.  n.  11.  p.  411. 

e  Act.  ZVI.  1,  2,  3.  f  Homil.  XXZIV.  in  Act.  App.  p.  684. 

g  Stromal,  lib.  7.  pag.  ToO. 


140  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

off,  by  a  too  sudden  and  violent  rending  them  from  the 
circumcision  in  the  flesh,  to  bring  them  over  to  the  cir- 
cumcision of  the  heart.  So  that  he  who  thus  accommo- 
dates himself  for  the  salvation  of  another,  can  no  ways 
be  charged  with  dissimulation  and  hypocrisy ;  seeing  he 
does  that  purely  for  the  advantage  of  others,  which  he 
would  not  do  for  any  other  reason,  or  upon  account  of 
the  things  themselves  :  this  being  tS  <f/xav6g(»^»  5  <f/xo6k  TrmJiuTS 
the  part  of  a  wise  and  kind  instructor,  who  is  atrue  lover 
of  God,  and  the  souls  of  men. 

3.  St.  Paul  thus  fitted  with  a  meet  companion,  for- 
wards they  set  in  their  evangelical  progress,  and  having 
passed  through  Phrygia  and  Galatia,  came  down  to  Troas, 
thence  they  set  sail  for  Samothracia,  and  so  to  Neapolis, 
whence  they  passed  to  Philippi,  the  metropolis  of  that  part 
of  Macedonia  :  where  being  evil  entreated  by  the  magis- 
trates and  people,  they  departed  to  Thessalonica,  whence 
the  fury  and  malice  of  the  Jews  made  them  fly  to  Berasa. 
Here  they  met  with  people  of  a  more  generous  and  manly 
temper,  ready  to  embrace  the  Christian  doctrine,  but 
yet  not  till  they  had  first  compared  it  with  the  predictions 
which  the  prophets  had  made  concerning  the  Messiah. 
But  even  here  they  could  not  escape  the  implacable  spirit 
of  the  Jews,  so  that  the  Christians  were  forced  privately 
to  conduct  St.  Paul  to  Athens,  while  Silas  and  Timothy, 
not  so  much  the  immediate  objects  of  their  spite  and  cru- 
elty, staid  behind,  to  instruct  and  confirm  the  converts 
of  that  place.  Whether  they  came  to  him  during  his 
stay  at  Athens,  is  uncertain  iSt.Luke  takes  no  further  no- 
tice of  them,  till  their  coming  to  him  at  Corinth,  his  next 
remove.  Where  at  their  first  arrival  (if  it  was  not  at 
Athens)  St.  Paul  despatched  away  Timothy  to  Thessalo- 
nica,'' to  inquire  into  the  state  of  Christianity  in  that  city, 
and  to  confirm  them  in  the  belief  and  profession  of  the 
gospel,'  for  he  seems  to  have  had  a  more  peculiar  kind- 
ness for  that  church,  having  since  his  last  being  there, 
more  than  once  resolved  himself  to  go  back  to  them,  but 
that  the  great  enemy  of  souls  had  still  thrown  some  rub 
in  the  way  to  hinder  him. 

h  1  Thess.  iii.  1,  2,  3.  i  2  Thcss.  v.  17, 13,  19. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY.  141 

4.  From  Thessalonica  Timothy''  returned  with  the 
Wf-lcome  news  of  their  firmness  and  constancy,  notwith- 
stimding  the  persecutions  they  endured,  their  mutual 
chanty  to  each  other,  and  particular  affection  to  St.  Paul ; 
news,  wherewith  the  good  man  was  infinitely  pleased  : 
As  certainly  nothing  can  minister  greater  joy  and  satis- 
faction to  a  faithful  guide  of  souls,  than  to  behold  the 
welfare  and  prosperity  of  his  people.  Nor  did  his  care 
of  them  end  here,  but  he  presently  writes  his  first  epis- 
tle to  them,  to  animate  them  under  their  sufferings,  and 
not  to  desert  the  Christian  religion,  l^ccause  the  cross  did 
attend  it,  but  rather  to  adorn  their  Christian  profession 
by  a  life  answerable  to  the  holy  designs  and  precepts  of 
it.  In  the  front  of  this  epistle  he  inserted  not  only  his 
own  name,  but  also  those  of  Silas  and  Timothy,  partly  to 
reflect  the  greater  honour  upon  his  fellow- workers,  partly 
that  their  united  authority  and  consent  might  have  the 
stronger  influence  and  force  upon  them.  The  like  he 
did  in  a  second  epistle,  which  not  long  after  he  sent  to 
them,  to  supply  the  want  of  his  personal  presence,  where- 
of in  his  former  he  had  given  them  some  hopes,  and 
which  he  himself  seemed  so  passionately  to  desire. 
Eighteen  months  at  least  they  had  continued  at  Corinth, 
when  St.  Paul  resolved  upon  a  journey  to  Jerusalem, 
where  he  staid  not  long,  but  went  for  Antioch,  and  hav- 
ing travelled  over  the  countries  of  Galatiaand  Phrygiato 
establish  Christianity  lately  planted  in  those  parts,  came 
to  Ephesus,  where  though  he  met  with  great  opposition, 
yet  he  preached  v/ith  greater  success,  and  was  so  wholly 
swallowed  up  wdththe  concerns  of  that  city,  that  though 
he  had  resolved  himself  to  go  into  Macedonia,  he  was 
forced  to  send  Timothy  and  Erastus  in  his  stead,  who 
having  done  their  errand,  returned  to  Ephesus,  to  assist 
him  in  promoting  the  affairs  of  religion  in  that  place. 

5.  St.  Paul  having  for  three  years  resided  at  Ephesus 
and  the  parts  about  it,  determined  to  take  his  leave,  and 
depart  for  Macedonia.  And  now  it  was  (as  himself 
plainly  intimates,'  and  the  ancients   generally  conceive) 

k    1  Thess.  iii.  6,  T,  1st  seq.  1  1  Tim.  i.  3. 


142  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

that  he  constituted  Timothy  bishop  and  governor  of  that 
church  :  he  was  the  first  bishop  (says  ™Eusebius)  of  the 
province  or  diocess  of  Ephesus  ;  he  did  Trgi-r©- £<? 4(r« 
'ETi<ry.c7r»<rd.,,  says  thc  "author  in  Photius,  j^r^?  act  as  bishop 
of  Ephesus,  and  in  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  27  bishops 
are  said  successively  to  have  sitten  in  that  chair,  whereof 
St.  Timothy  was  the  first.  In  the  "Apostolical  Consti- 
tutions he  is  expressly  said  to  have  been  ordained  bishop 
of  it  by  St.  Paul,  or  as  he  in  ^Photius  expresseth  it  a  lit- 
tle more  after  the  mode  of  his  time,  he  xvas  ordained  and 
enthroned  (or  installed)  bishop  of  the  metropolis  of  the 
JEphesians  by  the  great  St.  Paul.  Ephesus  was  a  great 
and  populous  city,  and  the  civil  government  of  the  pro- 
consul, who  resided  there  reached  over  the  whole  Ly- 
dian  or  proconsular  Asia.  And  such  in  proportion  the 
ancients  make  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of  that  church, 
^S.  Chrysostom  affirming  it  to  be  plain  and  evident,  that 
St.  Timothy  had  the  church,  or  rather  the  -whole  nation 
of  Asia  committed  to  him  ;  to  him  (says  "^Theodoret)  di- 
vine St.  Paul  committed  -f'kTU^'rw'iTriixi-KUit,  the  care  and 
the  charge  of  Asia  ;  upon  which  account  a  little  after  'he 
calls  him  the  apostle  of  the  Asians.^  As  for  the  manner 
of  his  ordination,  or  rather  designation  to  the  ministeries 
of  religion,  it  was  by  particular  and  extraordinary  de- 
signation, God  immediately  testifying  it  to  be  his  will 
and  pleasure;  thence  it  is  said  to  have  been  done  ^tar*  t«? 
^rgoi^Sc-stc  7r^o<^>!ii!'M,  'according  to  some  preceding  predictions 
concer'ning  him,  and  that  he  received  it  not  only  by  the 
laying  on  of  hands,  but  by  prophecy,  that  is,  as  "Chrysos- 
tom truly  explains  it,  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  it  being  part 
of  the  prophetic  office  (as  he  adds,  and  especially  it  was 
so  at  that  time)  not  only  to  foretell  future  events,  but  to 
declare  things  present,  God  extraordinarily  manifesting 
whom  he  would  have  set  apart  for  that  weighty  office. 
Thus  Paul  and  Barnabas  wer^e  separated  by  the  special 

m  H.  Eccl.  1.  3.  c.  4,  p.  7o.  n  Martvr.  Tim.  ap.  Phot.  Cod.  CCLIV. 

col.  3401.  o  Cone  Chalced.  Act.  XL  Cone.  Tom.  4.  eol.  609.       pLib.  7.  c. 

47.  col.  451.         q  Homil.  XV.  in  1  Tim.  p.  1606.  r  Argum.  in  1  ail  Tim.  p. 

463.  s  Com.  in  1  Tim.  3.  p.  475.  T.  3.  1 1  Tim.  i.  IS.     I  Tim.  iv..l4. 

u  Homil.  V.  inl  Tim.  p.  1545. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY.  143 

dictate  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  the  governors  of  the 
Ephesine  churches  that  met  at  Miletus,  it  is  said,  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  had  made  them  bishops,  or  overseers  of  the 
church.  And  this  way  of  election  by  way  of  prophetic 
revelation  continued  in  use  at  least  during  the  apostolic 
age  .  ""Clemens  in  his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  tells  us 
that  the  apostles,  preaching  up  and  down  cities  and  coun- 
tries, constituted  their  first  fruits  to  be  the  bishops  and 
deacons  of  those  who  should  believe,  SMud.7a.{]K-n^  mrju'r,t, 
making  trial  of  them  by  the  spirit:  and  another  ""Clemens  re- 
ports of  St.  John,  that  visiting  the  neighbouring  churches 
about  Ephesus,  he  ordained  bishops  and  such  as  were 
signifed,  or  pointed  out  to  him,  by  the  spirit. 

6.  This  extraordinary  and  miraculous  way  of  choosing 
bishops  and  ecclesiastic  officers,  besides  other  advantages, 
begat  a  mighty  reverence  and  veneration  for  the  gover- 
nors of  the  church,  who  were  looked  upon  as  God's 
choice,  and  as  having  the  more  immediate  character  of 
heaven  upon  them.  And  especially  this  way  seemed 
more  necessary  for  St.  Timothy  than  others,  to  secure 
him  from  that  contempt  which  his  youth  might  otherwise 
have  exposed  him  to.  For  that  he  was  but  young  at  that 
time,  is  evident  from  St.  Paul's  counsel  to  him,  so  to  de- 
mean himself,  that  no  man  might  despise  his  youth  /^  the 
governors  of  the  church  in  those  days  were  n^ic-jiuTf^u,  in 
respect  of  their  age  as  well  as  office,  and  indeed  there- 
fore styled  elders,  because  they  usually  w-ere  persons  of 
a  considerable  age  that  were  admitted  into  the  orders  of 
the  church.  This  Timothy  had  not  attained  to.  And 
yet  the  word  vtiryit,  youth,  admits  a  greater  latitude  than 
we  in  ordinary  speech  confine  it  to.  'Cicero  tells  us  of 
himself,  that  he  was  adolescentuhis,  but  a  very  youth 
when  he  pleaded  Roscius's  cause ;  and  yet  ''A,  Geliius 
proves  him  to  have  been  at  that  time  no  less  than  twentv- 
scven  years  old.  Alexander  the  son  of  Aristobuhis  'is 
called  n^tn^KOr,  a  youth,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  w^hen  yj.^ 
he  was  above  thirty.     Hiero  in  ^Polybius  is  styled  v/<f:T 

V  Epist.  a-l  Cnrin.  pnjj-.  54.         w  Clem.  Al.  lib.  '•ul  -r^Aai'^  C'-'^ifuiv'Sr.  ap. 
Euseb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  3.  c.  23.  p.  92.  x  1  Tim.  iv.  12  y  IiiOiat-r.  p.  265. 

Tom.  1.     z  Noct.  Atiic.  !.  15.  c  28.  p.  383.  a  Joseph  Andq.  I.  14. 'c.  13.  p. 

480.  i-  ^  .  1 


144  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

■AQr,  a  very  young  tnan^  whom  yet  Casaubon  proves  to 
have  been  thirty-five  years  of  age  -^  and  the  same  historian 
speaking  of  T.  Fiaminius's  making  war  upon  PhiUp  of 
Macedon,  says  he  was  vi&  ko/xiS'^,  a  very  young  man,  for 
that  he  was  not  above  thirty  years  old  :  it  being  (as  Ca- 
saubon observes)  the  custom  both  of  Greek  and  Latin 
writers  to  extend  the  juventus,  or  youthful  age  from  the 
thirtieth  till  the  fortieth  year  of  a  man's  life.  To  which 
we  may  add  what  "Grotius  observes,  that  veoTw  answering 
to  the  Hebrew  nnin^  denotes  the  military  age,*'  all  that  ci- 
vil and  manly  part  of  a  man's  life  that  is  opposed  to  old 
age;  so  that  Timothy's  youth,  without  any  force  or 
violence  of  the  word,  might  very  well  consist  with  his 
being  at  least  thirty,  or  five  and  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
he  so  styled  only  comparatively  with  respect  to  that 
weighty  function,  which  was  wont  to  be  conferred  upon 
none  but  grave  and  aged  men.     But  of  this  enough. 

7.  St.  Timothy  thus  fixedat  Ephesus,*^  did  yet  accom- 
pany St.  Paul  some  part  of  his  journey  into  Greece,  at 
least  went  to  him  thither  upon  some  urgent  aftairs  of  the 
church,  and  then  returned  to  his  charge.  Not  long  after 
which  St.  Paul  wrote  his  Jirst  epistle  to  him,  to  encourage 
him  in  his  duty,  and  direct  him  how  to  behave  himself  in 
that  eminent  station  wherein  lie  had  set  him.  And  be- 
cause the  success  of  the  ministry  does  in  a  great  mea- 
sure depend  upon  the  persons  em.ployed  in  it,  he  give* 
him  more  particular  rules  how  to  proceed  in  this  matter, 
and  how  the  persons  ought  to  be  qualified,  whom 
he  admitted  to  that  honourable   and    important    office, 

occ^lv   Tt/crai   Tov   h^-jpy(^uiv  fiicv    5    /^o^ov  dyatfu-tMc  S'n^tuvf    aS       INlCCpllOrUS 

speaks,  excellently  representing  in  that  epistle,  as  in 
a  short  draught,  the  life  and  conversation  of  the  sacred 
goveinors  of  the  church,  describing  the  tempers  and  man- 
ners of  those  who  are  appointed  to  be  the  guides  and 
ministers  of  religion.  Well  he  knew  also  that  crafty 
teachers  and  false  apostles  were  creeping  into  the  chinch, 
whose  principles  and  practices  he  remarks,  warning  him 

b  Hist.  1.  1.  p.  11.  EJit.  8.  iibi  vid.  Casaub.  Comment,  p.  J29.  &  ejusd.  exer- 
cit.  ad  Baron.  Appar.  n.  99.  n.  154.  c  Aunol.  in  !cc.  d  Acts  x,x.  2,  3.  5;c. 
eH.  Ecc.lib.  2.  c.o4.  p.  189. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY.  145 

to  beware  of  them,  and  to  stand  continually  upon  his 
guard  against  them.  The  holy  man  followed  his  instruc- 
tions, and  was  no  doubt  faithful  to  his  trust,  which  he 
managed  with  all  care  and  diligence.  About  six  years 
after,  St.  Paul  being  then  a  prisoner  at  Rome,  wrote  a 
second  epistle  to  him  (for  that  this  epistle  was  written  at 
his  first  coming  to  Rome,  we  have  showed  elsewhere')  to 
excite  him  to  mighty  care  and  fidelity  in  his  business, 
and  in  undermining  the  false  and  subtle  insinuations  of 
seducers.  In  it  he  orders  Timochy  to  come  to  him  with 
all  speed  to  Rome, ^  who  accordingly  came,  and  joined  with 
himinthe  severalepistles  written  thence  to  the  Philippians, 
Colossians,  and  to  Philemon,  as  his  name  in  the  front  of 
those  epistles  does  abundantly  declare.  During  his  stay 
at  Rome  he  was,  upon  some  occasion,  cast  into  prison, 
and  thence  released  and  set  at  liberty  about  the  time  of 
St.  Paul's  enlargement,  as  he  clearly  intimates  in  the 
close  of  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ,  ''after  which  he  came 
back  to  Ephesus  nor  is  it  probable  that  he  any  more 
removed  from  thence,  till  his  translation  into  Heaven. 
And  here  it  was  that  he  became  acquainted  with  St.  John, 
whose  apostolical  province  mainly  lay  in  Asia,  and  the 
parts  about  Ephesus;  and  so  the  'Acts  under  the  name  of 
Polycrates,  one  of  his  successors  (doubtless  of  good  an- 
tiquity, being  those  mentioned  and  made  use  of  by  Pho- 
tius)  report,  that  he  conversed  with,  and  was  an  auditor 
of  St.  John  the  divine,  who  lay  in  the  bosom  of  our  Lord. 
8.  The  Ephesians  were  a  people  of  great  looseness 
and  impiety,  their  manners  were  wanton  and  effeminate, 
prophane  and  prodigal :  they  banished  Hermodorus  only 
because  be  was  more  sober  and  thrifty  than  the  rest, 
enacting  a  decree.  Let  none  of  ours  be  thrifty.^  They 
were  strangely  bewitched  with  the  study  of  magic  and  the 
arts  of  sorcery  and  divination  ;  miserably  overrun  with 
idolatry,  especially  the  temple  and  worship  of  Diana,  for 
which  they  were  famous  through  the  whole  world. 
Among  their  many    idolatrous    festivals  they  had  one 

f  Antiq.  Apost     Life  of  St,  Paul,  sect.  7.  n.  5.       g  2  Tim.  iv.  9.       h  Hebr. 
iii.23,  24.         J  Ap.  BolUnd.  Jam;arXXIV.         k  Strab.  Geogr.  lib.  14. 


146  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

called '  KATArnnoN,  which  was  celebrated  after  this  manner; 
habiting  themselves  in  an  antic  dress,  and  covering  their 
faces  with  ugly  vizors,  that  they  might  not  be  known, 
with  clubs  in  their  hands,  they  carried  idols  in  a  wild  and 
frantic  manner  up  and  down  the  more  eminent  places  of 
the  city,  singing  certain  songs  and  verses  to  them;  and 
without  any  compassion  or  respect  either  to  age  or  sex, 
settir>g  upon  all  persons  that  they  met,  they  beat  out  their 
bniins,  glorying  in  it  as  a  brave  atchievement,  and  a 
great  honour  to  their  gods.  This  cursed  and  execrable 
custom  gave  just  offence  to  all  pious  and  good  men,  es- 
pecially St.  Timothy,  whose  spirit  was  grieved  to  see 
God  so  openly  dishonoured,  human  nature  sunk  into 
such  a  deep  degeneracy,  and  so  arbitrarily  transported 
to  the  most  savage  barbarities  by  the  great  murderer  of 
souls.  The  good  man  oft  endeavoured  to  reclaim  them 
by  lenitive  and  mild  entreaties ;  but  alas  gentle  physic 
works  little  upon  a  stubborn  constitution.  When  that 
would  not  do,  out  he  comes  to  them  into  the  midst  of  the 
street  upon  one  of  these  fatal  solemnities,  and  reproves 
them  with  some  necessary  sharpness  and  severity.  But 
cruelty  and  licentiousness  are  too  headstrong  to  brook 
opposition :  impatient  of  being  controlled  in  their  wild 
extravagancies,  they  fall  upon  him  with  their  clubs,  beat 
and  drug  him  up  and  down,  and  then  leave  him  for  dead, 
whom  some  Christians  finding  yet  to  breathe,  took  up, 
and  lodged  him  without  the  gate  of  the  city,  where  the 
third  day  after  he  expired.  He  suffered  martyrdom  on 
the  thirtieth  day  of  the  fourth  month,  according  to  the 
Asian  computation,  or  in  the  Roman  account  on  the 
twenty-second  of  January,  as  the  Greek  church  celebrates 
his  memory,  or  the  twenty-fourth,  according  to  the  Latin. 
It  happened  (as  some  will  have  it)  in  the  time  of  Nerva, 
while  others  more  probably  refer  it  to  the  reign  of  Do- 
mitian,  it  being  done  before  St.  John's  return  from  his 
banishment  in  Patmos,  which  was  about  the  beginning 

I  Martyr.  Timoth.  Apost.  ap.  Pliot.  Cod.  254.  col.  1401,  1404.  Com.  de  S. 
Timotl).  S.  Metaplir.aiiiid  Sur.  ad  Jan.  x.xiv.  n.  9,  10.  Fragment,  vit.  S.  Timoth. 
Grxte  ap.  P.  Halloix  in  vit.  Pohcarp.  p.  558.  forsan  er  Act.  S  Timoth.  a  Po- 
Ivrrat.  (uti  aiunt)  sciiptis,  qujt  eadem  hubent,  ap.  Bollaiid.  ad  Januar.  xxiv.  p. 
56§. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY.  147 

of  Nerva's  reign.  Being  dead,  the  Christians  of  Ephe- 
sus  took  his  body,  and  decently  intered  it  in  a  place 
called  Pion,  Piron  (says™  Isidore,  who  adds  that  it  was  a 
mountain)  where  it  securely  rested  for  some  ages,  till" 
Constantine  the  great,  or  as  others,  his  son  Constantius 
caused  it  to  be  translated  to  Constantinople,  and  laid  up 
together  with  those  of  St.  ndrew  and  St.  Luke,  in  the 
great  church  erected  by  Constantine  to  the  holy  apostles. 
9.  He  was  a  man  of  no  very  firm  and  healthful  con- 
stitution, frequent  distempers  assaulting  him,  besides 
the  constant  infirmities  that  hung  upon  him.  Which  St. 
Chrysostom  conceives  were  in  a  great  measure  owing  to 
his  extraordinary  temperance,  and  too  frequent  fastings." 
An  effectual  course  to  subdue  those  youthful  lusts  which 
St.  Paul  cautioned  him  to  shun,  there  being  no  such  way 
to  extinguish  the  fire,  as  to  withdraw  the  fuel  :  he  al- 
lowed himself  no  delicious  meats,  no  generous  wines ; 
bread  and  water  was  his  usual  bill  of  fare,  till  by  exces- 
sive abstinence,  and  the  meanness  and  coarseness  of  his 
diet  he  had  weakened  his  appetite,  and  rendered  his  sto- 
mach unfit  to  serve  the  ends  of  nature.  Insomuch  that 
St.  Paul  was  forced  to  impose  it  as  a  kind  of  law  upon 
him,  that  he  should  no  longer  drink  ruater,  but  use  a  lit- 
tle wine  for  his  stomach's  sake,  and  his  often  ijifirinities.^ 
And  yet  in  the  midst  of  this  weak  tottering  carcase  there 
dwelt  a  vigorous  and  sprightly  mind,  a  soul  acted  by  a 
mighty  zeal,  and  inspired  with  a  true  love  to  God  :  he 
thought  no  difficulties  great,  no  dangers  formidable,  that 
he  might  be  serviceable  to  the  purposes  of  religion,  and 
the  interest  of  souls  ;  he  flew  from  place  to  place  with  a 
quicker  speed,  and  a  more  unwearied  resolution,  than 
could  have  been  expected  from  a  stronger  and  a  healthier 
person,  now  to  Ephesus,  then  to  Corinth,  oft  into  Mace- 

m  De  Vit.  &  01)U.  SS.  c.  86.  p.  542. 

n  Hieron.  adv.  Vigil,  p.  122.  Tom.  2.  Niceph.  Eccl.  H.  1.  2.  c.  43.  p.  210.  Me- 
ta|i!ir.  ubi  supr.  n.  X. 

Tri^x:  »c  Xj  n:  i^^rmity  'ifj.'nrv.v  wi  ■/  -Jiytv  r/.,\ii^n-^ce-^i-Ji,x.  srriTs/stwsrac  yxg-iicii  0T<  j.«p 

Clirbsost.  Homil.  I.  ad  Pup.  Antiach.  lorn.  1.  p.  5. 
p  1  Tim.  iv.  23. 


148  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

donia,  then  to  Italy,  crossing  sea  and  land,  and  surmount- 
ing a  thousand  hazards  and  oppositions :  in  all  which 
(as  "iChrysostom's  words  are)  the  weakness  of  his  body 
did  not  prejudice  the"  divine  philosophy  of  his  mind  ;  so 
strangely  active  and  powerful  is  zeal  for  God,  so  nimbly 
does  it  wing  the  soul  with  the  swiftest  flight.  And  cer- 
tainly (as  he  adds)  as  a  great  and  robust  body  is  little 
better  for  its  health,  which  has  nothing  but  a  dull  and  a 
heavy  soul  to  inform  it ;  so  bodily  weakness  is  no  great 
impediment,  where  there  is  a  quick  and  a  generous  mind 
to  animate  and  enliven  it. 

10.  These  excellent  virtues  infinitely  endeared  him 
to  St.  Paul,  who  seems*  to  have  had  a  very  passionate 
kindness  for  him,  never  mentioning  him  without  great 
tenderness,  and  titles  of  reverence  and  respect :  some- 
times styling  him  hhson,  his  hrother,  \\v&  fellow -labourer^ 
Timothetis  our  brother^  anrj  minister  of  God,  and  our  fel- 
low-labourer in  the  gospel  of  Christ ;""  sometimes  Avith  ad- 
ditions of  a  particular  aft'ection  and  honourable  regard, 
Timothy,  my  dearly  beloved  son  ;  Timotheus,  who  is  my 
beloved  so7i,^  and  faithful  in  the  Lord:  and  to  the  church 
at  Philippi  more  expressly,"  /  trust  to  send  Timotheus 
shortly  to  you,  for  I  have  no  man  like-minded  {^i<xh-\vyjiv, 
equally  dear  to  me  as  myself )  who  will  naturally  care  for 
your  state  :  for  all  seek  their  oivn,  not  the  things  that  arc 
Jesus  Chris  fs  ;  but  ye  know  the  proof  of  him,  that  as  a  son 
•unth  the  father,  he  hath  served  with  me  in  the  gospel.^ 
And  because  he  knew  that  he  was  a  young  man,  and  of 
temper  easily  capable  of  harsh  and  unkind  impressions, 
he  entered  a  particular  caution  on  his  behalf  with  the 
church  of  Corinth,*  Ifl'hnotheus  come,  see  that  he  maij  be 
unth  you  without  fear,  for  he  worketh  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  as  I  also  rlo  :  let  no  man  therefore  despise  him,  but 
conduct  him  forth  i?i  peace,  that  he  may  corne  unto  me.^ 
Instances  of  a  great  care  and  tenderness,  and  which  plain- 
ly suppose  Timothy  to  have  been  an  extraordinary  per- 
son.    His  very  calling  him  his  dearly  beloved  son,  Chry- 

q  Loc.  citat.  png./.  r  1  Tliess.  iii.  2.  s  2  Tim,  i.  2. 

t  Philip  li.  19,  20,  &c.  u  1  Cor.  xvi,  10,  11. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY.  149 

.sostom  thinks  a  sufficient  argument  of  his  virtue/'  For 
such  affection  not  being  founded  in  nature,  can  flow  from 
nothing  but  virtue  and  goodness,  the  lovely  and  essential 
ornaments  of  a  divine  and  a  hoi}'  soul.  We  love  our 
children  not  only  because  witty,  or  handsome,  kind  and 
dutiful,  but  because  they  are  ours,  and  very  often  for  no 
other  reason  ;  nor  can  we  do  otherwise,  so  long  as  we 
are  subject  to  the  impressions  and  the  laws  of  nature. 
Whereas  true  goodness  and  virtue  have  no  other  arts  but 
their  own  naked  worth  and  beauty  to  recommend  them, 
nor  can  by  any  other  argument  challenge  regard  and  ve- 
neration from  us. 

11.  Some  dispute  there  has  been  among  the  writers 
of  the  church  of  Rome,  whether  our  St.  Timothy  was 
the  same  with  him,  to  A^'hom  Dionysius  the  Areopagitc 
dedicates  the  books  said  to  be  written  by  him ;  and 
troops  of  arguments  are  mustered  on  either  side.  But 
the  foundation  of  the  controversy  is  quite  taken  away 
with  us,  who  are  sufficiently  assured,  that  those  books 
were  written  some  hundreds  of  years  after  St.  Denvs's 
head  was  laid  in  the  dust.  However  it  may  not  be  im- 
proper to  remark,  that  besides  ours,  bishop  of  Ephesus, 
we  are''' told  of  another  St.  Timothy,  disciple  also  to  St. 
Paul,  the  son  of  Pudens  and  Priscilla,  who  is  said  to  have 
lived  unto  a  great  age,  till  the  times  of  Antoninus  the  em- 
peror, and  Pius  bishop  of  Rome,  and  that  he  came  over 
into  Britain,  converted  and  baptized  Lucius  king  of  this 
island,  the  first  kiiig  that  ever  embraced  the  Christian 
faith.  Pius  bishop  of  Rome  in  a  '^  letter  to  Justus  bishop 
of  Vienna  (which  though  suspected  by  most,  is  yet  own- 
ed by  -Baronius)  reckons  him  among  the  presbyters  that 
had  been  educated  by  the  apostles,  and  had  come  to 
Rome,  and  tells  us  that  he  had  suffered  martyrdom  :  ac- 
cordingly the  ^  Roman  martyrology  informs  us,  that  he 
obtained  the  crown  of  martyrdom  under  iVntoninus  the 

V  Homil.  1.  in  2  Tim.  p.  16  26. 

w  Pet.  de  Natul.  Hist.  SS.  1   1.  24.  Naucler.  Cliron.  vol.  2.  gener.  6.  confer 
Adon.  Martyr,  ad.  XII.  Kal.  Jul.  vid.  Us.ser.  de  primord.  c.  .1.  p.  31. 
X  Concil.  Tom.  1.  col.  .576.  y  Bar.  ad  Ann.  156.  n.  1,  2. 

■L  Martyrol,  Rom.  ad  Mart,  21.  p.  190. 


150  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TIMOTHY. 

emperor.  A  story  which  as  I  cannot  confute,  so  I  am 
not  over  forward  to  believe,  nor  is  it  of  moment  enough 
to  my  purpose  more  particularly  to  enquire  about  it. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS, 

BISHOP  OF  CRETE. 


His  country  inquired  into.  The  repoi-t  of  his  noble  extract.  His  educa- 
tion and  Conversion  to  Christianity.  His  acquaintance  with,  and  ac- 
companying St.  Paul  to  the  Synod  at  Jerusalem.  St.  Paul's  refusing  to 
circumcise  him,  and  why.  His  attending  St.  Paul  in  his  travels.  Their 
arrival  in  Crete.  Titus  constituted  by  him  Bishop  of  that  island.  The 
testimonies  of  the  ancients  to  that  purpose.  The  intimations  of  it  in 
St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  him.  St.  Paul's  censure  of  the  people  of  Crete,  justi- 
fied by  the  account  which  Gentile  writers  gi\e  of  their  evil  manners. 
A  short  view  of  the  Epistle  itself.  The  directions  concerning  ecclesi- 
astic persons.  His  charge  to  exhort  and  convince  gain-sayers.  Crete 
abounding  with  Heretical  teachers.  Jewish  fables  and  genealogies 
what,  and  whence  derived.  The  atones  and  a-vlvyn  of  the  ancient 
Gnostics  borrowed  from  the  S-J'->cvict<  of  the  Heathen  jjoets.  This  shown 
by  particular  instances.  Titus  commanded  to  attend  S.  Paul  at  Nico- 
polis.  His  coming  to  him  into  Macedonia.  His  following  St.  Paul  to 
Rome,  and  departure  into  Dalmatia.  The  story  of  Pliny  the  younger's 
being  converted  by  him  in  Crete,  censured.  His  age  and  death.  The 
church  erected  to  his  memory. 

1.  THE  ancient  writers  of  the  church  make  little 
mention  of  this  holy  man ;  who,  and  whence  he  was,  is 
not  known,  but  by  uncertain  probabilities.  ''S.  Chry- 
sostom  conjectures  him  to  have  been  born  at  Coiinth, 
for  no  other  reason,  but  because  in  some  anci^.^nl  copies 
(as  still  is  in  several  manuscripts  at  this  day)  mention  is 
made  of  St.  Paul's  going  at  Corinth  into  the  house  of  one 
[Titus]  named  Justus,  one  that  -ivorsli'ippedJ"  The  wri- 
ters of  later  ages  generally  make  him  to  be  born  in  Crete, 
better  known  by  the  modern  name  of  Candia,  a  noble 

a  Homil.  1.  in  Til.  pag^.  1693.        b  Act.  xviii.  7- 


152  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

island  (as  the  "  historian  calls  it,  who  adds  that  the  only 
cause  of  the  Romans  making  war  there,  was  a  desire  to 
conquer  so  brave  a  country)  in  the  iEgean  sea,  not  more 
famous  of  old  for  being  the  birth-place  of  Jupiter,  the 
sovereign  of  the  Heathen  gods,  and  the  Dsedalean  La- 
byrinth said  to  be  in  it,  than  of  late  for  its  having  been 
so  long  the  seat  of  war  between  the  Turkish  emperor 
and  the  state  of  Venice.  Antiquity  has  not  certainly 
conveyed  down  to  us  any  particular  notice  of  his  parents, 
though,  might  we  believe  the  account  which  some  give, 
he  was  of  no  common  extract,  but  of  the  blood  royal'*, 
his  pedigree  being  derived  from  no  less  than  Minos  king 
of  Crete,  whom  the  poets  make  the  son  of  Jupiter,  and 
for  the  equity  of  his  laws,  and  the  impartial  justice  of  his 
government,  prefer  him  to  be  one  of  the  three  great 
judges  in  the  infernal  regions,  whose  place  it  is  to  deter- 
mine men's  future  and  eternal  state  ;  while  historians 
more  truly  affirm  him  to  have  been  the  son  of  Xanthus 
king  of  that  island,  and  that  he  succeeded  his  father  in 
the  kingdom.     But  I  pass  by  that. 

2..  But  whatever  his  parentage  was,  we  are  sure  that 
he  was  a  Greek,  probably  both  by  nation  and  religion''. 
The  Greek  church  in  their  public  offices*^,  give  us  this 
account  of  his  younger  years,  and  conversion  to  Christi- 
anity :  that  being  sprung  from  noble  parents,  his  youth 
was  consecrated  to  learnin.":  and  a  2:enerous  education. 
At  twenty  years  old  he  heard  a  voice  which  told  him,  he 
must  depart  thence,  that  he  might  save  his  soul,  for  that 
all  his  learning  else  would  be  of  little  advantage  to  him. 
Not  satisfied  with  the  \^rning,  he  desired  again  to  hear 
the  voice.  A  year  after  he  was  again  commanded  in  a 
vision  to  peruse  the  volume  of  the  Jewish  law.  He 
opened  the  book,  and  cast  his  eye  upon  that  of  the  pro- 
phet, keep  silence  before  me^  0  islands,  a?id  let  the  people 

c  Flor.  H.  Rom.  1.  3.  c.  7.  p.  65. 

d  TTt©'  0  uAK-ifi®^  iit  Mt/ge«.  [Legend,  sine  clubio  M/'v*©'-]  tk  0ATtKiu;  KfMTxi 

irofoh®'  tlavK®'.  Menson  Crcec.  Auy>i^.  t-a  -A.  tiub  lit. ^u  111. 

e  ubi  supr. 

f  T<T«,  S'ii  <Ti  iiliZ^vi  \,v,hy.ria-a.t,  i.  tu'I  -['^yJ'V  »^*^  sifu-i,    t  yd^  cv'itfreJ  «■« »  TrcuJu-x 
«i)T«.  Men.  ill. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS.  153 

renew  their  strength  :  let  them  come  near,  let  them  speak  : 
let  us  come  near  together  to  judgment^  ^  8>cc.  W  hereup- 
on his  uncle  at  that  time  proconsul  of  Crete,  having 
heard  the  fame  of  our  Lord's  miracles  in  Judca,  sent  him 
to  Jerusalem,  where  he  continued  till  Christ's  ascension, 
when  he  was  converted  by  that  famous  sermon  of  St. 
Peter's,  whereby  he  gained  at  once  three  thousand  souls. 
I  cannot  secure  the  truth  of  this  story,  though  pretended 
to  be  derived  out  of  the  Acts,  said  to  be  written  by  Ze- 
nas  the  lawyer,  mentioned  by  St.  Paul :  an  authority,  I 
confess,  which  without  better  evidence,  I  dare  not  encou- 
rage the  reader  to  lay  too  much  stress  upon.  Let  us 
therefore  come  to  somewhat  more  certain  and  unquesti- 
onable. 

3.  Being  arrived  in  Judea,  or  the  parts  thereabouts, 
and  convinced  of  the  truth  and  divinity  of  the  Christian 
faith,  he  became  St.  Pauls  convert  and  disciple,  though 
when  or  where  converted  we  find  not.  Likely  it  is,  either 
that  he  followed  St.  Paul  in  the  nature  of  a  companion 
and  attendant,  or  that  he  incorporated  himself  into  the 
ehurch  of  Antioch  :  where  when  the  famous  controversy 
arose  concerning  circumcision  and  the  Mosaic  instituti- 
ons, as  equally  necessary  to  be  observed  with  the  belief 
and  practice  of  Christianity,  they  determined  that  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  and  certain  others  of  them  should  go  up  to 
Jerusalem  unto  the  apostles  and  elders  about  this  questioi^; 
nay,  a  very  ancient  '  MS.  adds,  that  when  Paul  earnestly 
persuaded  them  to  continue  in  the  doctrine  which  they 
had  been  taught,  those  very  Jewish  zealots  who  came 
down  to  Antioch,  and  had  first  started  the  scruple,  did 
themselves  desire  Paul  and  Barnabas  and  some  others  to  go 
end  consult  with  the  apostles  and  elders  at  Jerusalem^  and 
stand  to  their  sentence  and  determination  of  the  case.  In 
the  number  of  those  who  were  sent  upon  this  evangelical 
embassy  was  our  St.  Titus,  whom  St.  Paul  (encouraged 
to  his  journey  by  a  particular  revelation  •")  was  willing  to 
take  along  with  him.     No  sooner  were  they  come  to  Je- 

^  Isa.  xli.  1.  h  Act.  XV.  1,  2.  i  Cod.  Bezac  MS.  ad  Act.  xv.  2. 

k  Gal.  i.  2,  Sec. 


154  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

rusalem,  but  spies  were  at  hand,  some  zealous  Jews  pre- 
tend!: .g  tliem.-.clves  to  be  Christian  converts,  insinuated 
themh^elvts  into  St.  Paul's  company  and  acquaintance, 
narrowly  observing  what  liberty  he  took  in  point  of  legal 
rites,  that  thtnce  they  might  pick  an  accusation  against 
him.  rhey  charged  him  that  he  preached  to,  and  con- 
versed with  the  Gentiles,  and  that  at  this  very  time  Titus 
an  uncircumcised  Greek  was  his  intimate  familiar ;  a 
scandal  which  there  was  no  way  to  avoid,  but  by  circum- 
cising him,  that  so  it  might  appear  that  he  had  no  design 
to  undermine  the  rites  and  customs  of  the  law.  This 
St.  Paul  (who  knew  when  to  give  ground,  and  when  to 
maintain  his  station)  would  by  no  means  consent  to  :  he 
who  at  another  time  was  content  to  circumcise  Timothy, 
a  Jew  by  the  mother's  side,  that  he  might  please  the  Jews 
to  their  edification,  and  have  the  fairer  advantage  to  win 
upon  them,  refused  here  to  circumcise  Titus  a  Gentile, 
that  he  might  not  seem  to  betray  the  liberties  of  the 
Gospel,  harden  the  Jews  in  their  unreasonable  and  in- 
veterate prejudices  against  the  Heathens,  and  give  just 
ground  of  scandal  and  discouragement  to  the  Gentiles, 
and  make  them  fly  off  to  a  greater  distance  from  Christi- 
anity. Accordingly  he  resisted  their  importunity  with 
an  invincible  resolution,  and  his  practice  was  herein  im- 
mediately justified  by  the  decretory  sentence  of  the 
council,  summoned  to  determine  this  matter. 

4.  The  affair  about  which  they  were  sent  being  des- 
patched in  the  Synod,  he  returned  no  doubt  with  St.  Paul 
to  Antioch,  and  thence  accompanied  him  in  his  travels, 
till  having  gone  over  the  churches  of  Syria  and  Cilicia, 
they  set  sail  for  Crete.  For  that  period  of  time  I  con- 
ceive with  '  Cypellus  most  probable  for  their  going  over 
to  that  island,  rather  then  with  ™  Baronius  and  others  to 
place  it  at  St.  Paul's  coming  out  of  Macedonia  into 
Greece,  which  he  supposes  to  have  been  by  a  sea-voyage, 
passing  by  the  Cyclud:^  islands  through  the  iEgean  sea, 
or  with  "  Grotius  to  refer  it  till  his  vo3-age  to  Rome. 

1  Histor.  Apost  ad  ann.  Christ.  46.  m  Ad.  ann.  57.  n.  212. 

n  I«  Argiim.  Epist.  ad  Tit.  Act.  27.  7- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS.  155 

founding  his  conjecture  upon  a  double  mistake,  that  St. 
Paul  and  his  company  put  in  and  staid  at  Crete,  when 
it  is  only  said  that  they  sailed  under  it,  and  passed  by  it, 
and  that  Titus  was  then  in  the  company,  wheieof  no  foot- 
steps or  intimations  appear  in  the  story.  Sailing  there- 
fore from  some  port  in  Cilicia,  they  arrived  at  Crete, 
where  St.  Paul  industriously  set  himself  to  preach  and 
propagate  the  Christian  faith,  delighting  (as  much  as 
might  be)  to  be  the  first  messenger  of  the  glad  tidings  of 
the  gospel  to  all  places  where  he  came,  not  planting  in 
another  mmi's  line,  or  building  of  things  made  ready  to  his 
hand.  But  because  the  care  oi  other  churches  called  up- 
on him,  and  would  not  permit  him  to  stay  long  enough 
here  to  see  Christianity  brought  to  a  due  maturity  and 
perfection,  he  constituted  Titus  bishop  of  that  island,  that 
he  might  nourish  that  infant  church,  superintend  its 
growth  and  prosperity,  and  manage  the  government  and 
administration  of  it.  This  the  ancients  with  one  mouth 
declare,  he  xvas  the  first  bishop  (says  °Eusebius)  of  the 
churches  in  Crete:  the  apostle  consecrated  him  bishop  of 
it,  so  P  St.  Ambrose  ;  so  '*  Dorotheus,  and""  Sophronms; 
he  was  (says  '  Chrysostom)  an  approved  person  to  whom 
» yiftf-®- iAox/Jig®-,  the  whole  islandwas  entirely  con.mtted.  that 
he  might  exercise  power  and  jurisdiction  over  so  many 
bishops :  he  was  by  St.  Paul  ordained  bishop  of  Crete, 
though  a  very  large  island,  that  he  might  ordain  bishops 
under  him,  says*  Theodoret  expressly.  To  which  might 
be  added  the  testimonies  of  Theophylact,  Oecumenius, 
and  others,  and  the  subscription  at  the  end  of  the  Epistle 
to  Titus,  (which  though  not  dictated  by  the  same  hand, 
is  ancient  however)  where  he  is  said  to  have  been  ordained 
the  first  bishop  of  the  church  of  the  Cretians.  Ai;d"  St. 
Chrysostom  gives  this  as  the  reason,  why  of  all  his  disci- 
ples and  followers  St.  Paul  wrote  epistles  to  Titus  and 
Timothy,  and  not  to  Silas  or  Luke,  because  he  had  com- 
mitted to  them  the  care  and  government  of  churches, 

o  H.  Ecd.  1.  3.  c.  4.  p.  73.  p  Prxf.  in  Tit.  p.  419.  T.  5. 

q  Doroih.  Syuops.  p   148.  r   Ap.  Hier.  de  Script,  in  Tit. 

s  HoiT.il.  1.  'in  Tit.  p  1692.  t  Argura.  Epist.  ad  Tit.  Tom.  3. 

u  Argum.  in  I  ad.  Tim.  p.  1519, 


156  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

while  he  reserved  the  others  as  attendants  and  ministers 
to  go  along  with  himself. 

5.  Nor  is  this  merely  the  arbitrary  sense  of  antiqnity 
in  the  case,  but  seems  evidently  founded  in  St.  Paul's 
own  intimation,  where  he  tells  l'itus,yor  this  cause  left  1 
thee  in  Crete ^  that  thou  shouldst  set  in  order  the  things  that 
are  ivanting,  and  ordain  elders  i?i  every  city^  as  I  had  ap- 
pointed thee^ ^  that  is,  I  constituted  thee  governour  of  that 
church,  that  thou  mightst  dispose  and  order  the  affairs  of 
it  according  to  the  rules  and  directions  which  I  then  gave 
thee.  Ordain  elders']  he  means  bishops  (says  "^  Chryso- 
stom)  as  elsewhere  I  have  oft  explained  it.  Elders  i?i 
every  city]  he  was  not  willing  (as  he  adds)  that  the  whole 
administration  of  so  great  an  island  should  be  managed 
by  one,  but  that  every  city  might  have  its  proper  gover- 
nor to  inspect  and  take  care  of  it,  that  so  the  burthen  might 
be  lighter  by  being  laid  upon  many  shoulders,  and  the 
people  attended  w^ith  the  greater  diligence.  Indeed 
Crete  was  famous  for  number  of  cities  above  any  other 
island  in  the  world,  thence  styled  of  old  Hecatompolis,  the 
island  of  an  hundred  cities.  In  short,  plain  it  is,  that 
Titus  had  power  of  jurisdiction,  ordination,  and  ecclesi- 
astical censures,  above  any  other  pastors  or  ministers 
in  that  church  conferred  and  derived  upon  him. 

6.  Several  years  St.  Titus  continued  at  his  charge  in 
Crete,  when  he  received  a  summons  from  St.  Paul,  then 
ready  to  depart  from  Ephesus  The  apostle  had  desir- 
ed Apollos  to  accompany  Timothy  and  some  others  whom 
he  had  sent  to  Corinth,  but  he  choosing  rather  to  go  for 
Crete,  by  him  and  Zenas  he  wrote  an  epistle  to  Titus,  to 
stir  him  up  to  be  active  and  vigilant,  and  to  teach  him 
how  to  behave  himself  in  that  station  wherein  he  had  set 
him.  And  indeed  he  had  need  of  all  the  counsels  which 
St.  Paul  could  give  him,  who  had  so  loose  and  untoward 
a  generation  of  men  to  deal  with.  For  the  country  it- 
self was  not  more  fruitful  and  plenteous  than  the  man- 
ners of  the  people  were  debauched  and  vicious.  St. 
Paul  puts  Titus"  in  mind  what  a  bad  character  one  of 

V  Tit.  i.  5.  w  Homil.  2.  in  Tit.  p.   1700.  vid.  etiam  Thcoph.  &    &$■ 

cumen.  in  Ice.  x  Tit.  i.  12. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS.  157 

their  own  poets  (who  certainly  knew  them  best)  had 
given  of  them : 

The  Cretians  are  always  liars,  evil  beasts,  slow-bellies. 
This  verse  ^  St.  Chrysostom  supposes  the  apostle  took 
from  Callimachus,  who  makes  use  indeed  of  the  first 
part  of  it,  charging  the  Cretians  to  be  hke  themselves, 
notorious  liars,  in  pretending  that  Jupiter  was  not  only 
born,  but  died  among  them,  and  that  they  had  his  tomb 
with  this  inscription,  ENTAxeA  zan  heitai,  here  lies  Jupiter, 
when  as  the  deity  is  immortal :  whereupon  the  good  father 
perplexes  himself  with  many  needless  difficulties  in  recon- 
ciling it.  Whereas  in  truth  St.  Paul  borrowed  it  not  from 
Callimachus,  but  Epimenides,  a  native  of  Crete,  famous 
among  the  ancients  for  his  raptures  and  enthusiastic  di- 
vinations,   ©6o<p/Mk  ^  C'?^^  "^^S'  ''"*  ^ii"-*   ''"'iv  «v9K(7/ots-;Kiiv   5  ni\KiKy^  Qo^iaLv, 

as  ^  Plutarch  says  of  him.  From  him  Callimachus  cites 
part  of  the  verse,^and  applies  it  to  his  particular  purpose., 
while  St.  Paul  quotes  it  entire  from  the  author  himself. 
This  witness  (says  he)  is  true.  And  indeed  that  herein 
he  did  not  bely  them,  we  have  the  concurrent  testimonies 
of  most  heathen  writers,  who  charge  the  same  things  up- 
on them.**  So  famous  for  lying,  that  k^ht/^^v  and  Kp«7(<'5;v  tt^c; 
K^iiT*  became  proverbial,  to  lie  like  a  Cretian  and  to  cozen  a 
cheat,  and  nothing  more  obvious  than  mendax  Creta. 
•"Polybius  tells  us  of  them,  that  no  where  could  be  found 
more  subtle  and  deceitful  wits,  and  generally  more  wick- 
ed and  pernicious  counsels  ;  that  their  manners  were  so 
very  sordid  and  covetous,  that  of  all  men  in  the  world 
the  Cretians  were  the  only  persons  who  accounted  no- 
thing base  or  dishonest,  that  was  but  gainful  and  advan- 
tageous.    Besides  they  were  idle  and  impatient  of  labour, 

y  Homil.  III.  in  Tit.  pag.  1707.  z  In  vit.  Solon,  pag.  84. 

K^iiTtj  iTs)c?ii£r*VTO  ■    <rij  S'  !s   S-ivsc  siro"/  yif  ttUi.      Callim.  Hymn,  e/c  ^ 
A'^-  p-  1.  TTa^G/^wj'it  iri  TO  K^nri^iiv,  Wt  ■if(7iu£i7^u.t.  Vet.  Scliol  ibi. 

b     KgWrl^SfV,   TO  ^irst;(f83-S-3t(.    K.'iTigJt.  TTiXeOtfAd,     K  gXTf^SfV  'ZJr^C/C    K^JITaC  "    iTTilSi;    ■ij.rtu- 

fd-i,  l^TTtTimii  u<s-i.  Suid  in  voc.  Kp«T(i^i<v.  Eadeni  Mich.  Aoslol.  in  eod.  verb, 
Tih-ii^'is-^i  fxni'  o-Ito^  Vfix-^oc^m.i'/a.t  fj.i  rAVTa.  Ti^'j.riuo/xivov  yJP  Tit;  KfiyiTiti.  Psel.  dc 
aperat.  Dseraoii.  p.  37. 

c  Histor.  1.  5.  p.  681.  &  I.  4  p.  386.  Edit.  L.  Batav. 


tSB  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

gluttonous  and  intemperate,  unwilling-  to  take  any  pains 
further  than  to  make  provision  for  the  Jlesh  ;  as  the  natu- 
ral effect  of  ease,  idleness,  and  plenty,  they  were  wanton 
and  lascivious,  and  prone  to  the  vilest  and  basest  sort  of 
lust,  -ts-sgi  ra  wctATw*  cTa/^ov/ac  «5r73»vT««,  (as  ^  Atheuccus  iufomis  us) 
outrageously  mad  upon  that  sin  that  peculiarly  derives  its 
name  from  Sodom.  And  such  being  the  case,  what 
wonder  if  St.  Paul  bids  Titus  reprove  them  sharply^ 
seeing  their  corrupt  and  depraA-ed  manners  would  admit 
of  the  sharpest  lancets,  and  the  most  stinging  corrosives 
he  could  apply  to  them. 

6.  In  the  epistle  itself,  the  main  body  of  it  consists  of 
rules  and  directions  for  the  several  ranks  and  relations  of 
men  :  and  because  spiritual  and  Ecclesiastical  affairs  are 
of  all  others  most  considerable,  he  first  instructs  him  in 
the  qualifications  of  those  whom  he  should  set  apart  to 
be  bishops  and  guides  of  souls,  that  they  be  holy  and 
harmless,  innocent  and  inoffensive,  such  as  had  not  di- 
vorced and  put  away  their  first  wife  that  they  might  marry 
a  second,  whose  children  were  sober  and  regular,  and 
trained  up  in  the  Christian  faith  ;  that  they  be  easy  and 
tractable,  meek  and  unpassionate,  free  from  the  love  of 
wine,  and  a  desire  after  riches  by  sordid  and  covetous  de- 
signs ;  that  they  be  kind  and  hospitable,  lovers  of  good- 
ness and  good  men,  modest  and  prudent,  just  and  honest, 
strict  and  temperate,  firm  and  constant  in  owning  and 
asserting  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  that  have  been  de- 
livered to  then\,  that  being  thoroughly  furnished  with 
this  pure  evangelical  doctrine,  they  may  be  able  both  to 
persuade  and  comfort  others,  and  mightily  to  convince 
those  that  resist  and  oppose  the  truth.  And  certainly  it 
was  not  without  great  reason,  that  the  apostle  required 
that  the  guides  and  governors  of  the  church  should  be 
\\^\i's>2}o\Q  \.o  convince  gainsay ers.  For  whatever  authors 
report  of  Crete,  thut  it  bred  no  serpents  or  venomous 
creatures,  yet  certain  it  is  that  the  poison  of  erronr  and 
heresy  had  insinuated  itself  there  together  with  the  enter- 
tainment of  Christianity,  there  being  many  unruly  and 

d  Dclpnosoph.  I.  13.  pag.  601. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS.  159 

vain  talkers,  especially  they  of  the  circumcision,^  who  en- 
deavoured to  corrupt  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel  with 
Jcwisiriabies/  groundless  and  unwarrantable  traditions, 
mystical  and  cabalistic  explications,  ixndjbo/ish  questions 
and  genealogies.^  For  the  Jews  borrowing  their  notions 
herein  irom  the  schools  of  Plato,  were  fallen  into  a  vein 
of  deriving  things  from  an  imaginary  generation,  first 
Binah  or  understanding,  then  Achmoth  or  Cochmah  wis- 
dom, and  so  till  they  came  to  Milcah  the  kingdom,  and 
Schekinah  or  the  divine  presence.  Much  after  the  same 
rate  as  the  poets  of  old  deduced  the  pedigrees  of  their 
gods,  they  had  first  their  several  Cuo-i;^/*/  their  conjunctions^ 
the  coupling  and  mixing  of  things  together,  and  thence 
proceeded  their  7«vsa;.o>icti  their  genealogies  or  generations  ; 
out  of  Chaos  came  Erebus  and  the  dark  Night,  the  con- 
junction of  whom  begot  i^ther  and  the  Day,  and  thence 
•■Hesiod  proceeds  to  explain  the  whole  pagan  theology 
concerning  the  original  of  their  gods. 

7,  In  imitation  of  all  which,  and  from  a  mixture  of  all 
together  the  Valentinians,  Basilidians,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Gnostic  crew  formed  the  senseless  and  unintelliirible 
schemes  of  their  nxxVa^*  and  thirty  iEones,  divided  into  three 
classes  of  conjunction ;  in  the  first  were  four  couples, 
Profundity  and  Silence,  Mind  and  Truth,  the  Word 
and  Life,  Man  and  the  Church  :  in  the  second  five,  viz. 
Profound  and  Mixture,  Ageratus  and  Union,  &cc.  in  the 
third  six,  the  Pai'aclete  ar.d  Faith,  Patricos  and  Hope,  &c. 
Of  all  which  if  any  desire  to  ki^.ow  more,  they  may  (if 
they  can  understand  it)  find  enough  in  Irenasus,  Tertul- 
lian,  and  Epiplianius,  to  this  purpose.  'I'he  '  last  of  whom 
not  only  affirms  expressly  that  Valentinus  and  his  party 
introduced  ^evo^yS^ev-rt/^cr/v,  the  fabulous  and  poetic  fancies 
of  the  heathens,  but  draws  a  particular  pyrallel  between 
Hesiod'sTheogonia,  and  their  thirty  iE.ones  or  ages,  con- 
sisting of  fifteen  couples  or  corijugations,  male  and  fe- 
male, which  he  shows  exactly  to  agree  both  in  the  num- 
ber, design,  and  order  of  them.  For  instance,  Valenti- 
nus's  tribe  begins  thus  ; 

e  Tit.  i.  10.  f  Verse  U.  g  Verse  3  9. 

h  Hesiod.  Tlieopon.  p.  m.  466.  \  Hxre."5,  XZXl.pag-.  76.  vid.  Tcr- 

tull.de  Prxsciipt.  Hxret.  c.  ".  p.  204. 


160  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

Ampsiu  ')  ^^^^  .^  C  Profundity 

Auraan         3      '        c  Silence. 

Bucua  'I  C  Mind 

Tharthun      5  \  Truth. 

Ubuciia         7  C  Word 

Thardeadie  3  \  Life. 

Merexa        ">  C  Man 

Atarbarba     3  c  Church. 

fe^6-.  &c. 

All  which  was  nothing  but  a  trifling  and  fantastical  imi- 
tation of  Hesiod's  progeny  and  generation  of  the  gods, 
which  being  joined  in  conjugations  succeeded  in  this  or- 
der ;  Chaos,  Night ;  Erebus,  Earth ;  ^ther,  Day,  &c. 
There  being  (as  he  observes)  no  difference  between  the 
one  scheme  and  the  other,  but  only  the  change  and  alter- 
ation of  the  names.  This  may  suffice  for  a  specimen  to 
show  whence  this  idle  generation  borrowed  their  extrava- 
gant conceits,  though  there  were  that  had  set  much  what 
the  like  on  foot  before  the  time  of  Valentinus.  By  such 
dark  and  wild  notions  and  principles  the  false  Apostles 
both  in  Crete  and  elsewhere,  sought  to  undermine  the 
Christian  doctrine,  mixing  it  also  with  principles  of  great 
looseness  and  liberty,  that  they  might  the  easilier  insinu- 
ate themselves  into  the  affections  of  men,  whereby  they 
brought  over  numerous  proselytes  to  their  party,  of 
whom  they  made  merchandise^  gaining  sufficient  advan- 
tage to  themselves.  So  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
that  these  men's  mouths  should  be  stopped,  and  that  they 
should  not  be  suffered  to  go  on  under  a  show  of  such  lofty 

iTHT-i^ogo)  X.  <rci(  AfXm  TroinTnh  rm  iMn'av  mrc/gitS-^Ta/,  f.g:«av  c*  (jj-aiga/XJi^s  Tot 
ttuTU  ovTa,  z,  iS'H'  6Tf|sv,  -9'au^as-oy  oi  t»v  ^ivfji.!trttv  ailpiin^eX^'  i"''S'>if/o'<f*c  «^a/^£\- 
XcvTctt  Xfyitv  KcTiy  -yrig  «:'a\o,  'h  (fi.iivuv  aTrfui^niTo  T))v  iT;crAa96v  iTotifrtxnv  «5/v  T*  iS-ys- 

Ca^uHe  c»c//a7r,cT5//atf.  Id.  ibid. 
k  Tit.  i.  11. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS.  IGl 

and  sublime  speculations,  and  a  pretence  of  Christian  li- 
berty, to  pervert  men  from  the  Christian  religion,  and  the 
plainness  and  simplicity  of  the  Gospel.  Having  done 
with  ecclesiastics,  he  proceeds  to  give  directions  for  per- 
sons of  ail  ages  and  capacities,  whether  old  or  young,  men 
or  women,  children  or  servants,  and  then  of  more  public 
concernment,  rulers  and  people,  and  indeed  how  to  deport 
ourselves  in  the  general  carriage  of  our  lives.  In  the 
close  of  the  epistle  he  wishes  him  to  furnish  Zenas  and 
Apollos,  the  two  Apostolical  messengers  by  whom  this 
letter  was  conveyed  to  him,  with  all  things  necessary  for 
their  return,  commanding  that  he  himself  with  all  conve- 
nient speed  should  meet  him  at  Nicopolis  (though  where 
that  was  is  not  certain,  whether  Nicopolis  in  Epirus,  so 
called  from  Augustus's  victory  there  over  Antony  and 
Cleopatra,  or  rather  Nicopolis  in  Thrace,  upon  the  river 
Nesus,  not  far  from  the  borders  of  Macedonia,  whither  St. 
Paul  was  no^v  going,  or  some  other  city,  whereof  many  in 
those  parts  of  that  name)  where  he  had  resolved  to  spend 
his  winter.  And  that  by  withdrawing  so  useful  and  vigi- 
lent  a  shepherd  he  might  not  seem  to  expose  his  flock  to 
the  fury  and  the  rage  of  the  wolves,  he  promises  to  send 
Artemas  or  Tychicus  to  supply  his  place  during  his  ab- 
sence from  them. 

8.  St.  Paul  departing  from  Ephesus  was  come  to 
Troas,  where  though  he  had  a  fair  opportunity  to  preach 
the  gospel  offered  to  him,  yet  (as  himself  tells  us) 
he  had  no  rest  in  his  spirit,  because  he  found  not  Titus 
his  brother,'  whom  he  impatiently  expected  to  bring 
him  an  account  of  the  state  of  the  church  of  Corinth ; 
whether  Titus  had  been  with  him,  and  been  sent  upon 
this  errand,  or  had  been  commanded  by  him  to  take  Co- 
rinth in  his  way  from  Crete,  is  not  known.  Not  meeting 
him  here,  away  he  goes  for  iMacedonia,"'  where  at  length 
Titus  arrived  and  comforted  him  under  ail  his  other  sor- 
rows and  difficulties,  with  the  joyful  news  of  the  happy 
condition  of  the  church  of  Corinth,  and  how  readily  they 

1  2Cor  ;i,l?,  1.3.  m  2  Cor.  vii.  56,  r.  and  13,  14, 15. 

X 


162  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

had  reformed  diose  miscarriages,  which  in  his  former 
epistle  he  had  charged  upon  them,  fully  making  good 
that  great  character  which  he  had  given  of  them  to 
Titus,  and  whereof  they  gave  no  inconsiderable  evidence 
in  that  kind  and  welcome  entertainment  which  Titus 
found  amongst  them.  Soon  after  St.  Paul  having  re- 
ceived the  collections  of  the  Macedonian  churches  for 
the  indigent  Christians  at  Jerusalem,"*  sent  back  Titus 
and  with  him  St.  Luke  to  Corinth,  to  excite  their  chari- 
ty, and  prepare  their  contributions  against  his  own  arri- 
val  there,  and  by  them  he  wrote  his  second  epistle  to  that 
church. 

9.  Titus  faithfully  discharged  his  errand  to  the  church 
of  Corinth,  and  having  despatched  the  services  for  which 
he  was  sent,  returned,  we  may  suppose,  back  to  Crete. 
Nor  do  we  hear  any  further  news  of  him  till  St.  Paul's 
imprisonment  at  Rome,  whither  he  came  (  if  my  "author 
say  true)  about  two  years  after  him,  and  continued  with 
him  till  hi3  martyrdom,  whereat  he  was  present,  and  to- 
gether with  St  Luke,  committed  him  to  his  grave.  An 
account,  which  I  confess  I  am  the  less  inclined  to  believe, 
because  assured  by  St.  Paul  himself,^  that  before  his 
death  Titus  had  left  him  and  was  gone  to  Dalmatia,  a  pro- 
vince of  Illyricum,  to  plant  that  fierce  and  warlike  nation 
with  the  gospel  of  peace,  taking  it  probably  in  his  way  in 
order  to  his  return  for  Crete.  And  this  is  the  last  notice 
we  find  taken  of  him  in  the  holy  writings,  nor  do  the  re- 
cords of  the  church  henceforward  furnish  us  with  any 
certain  memoirs  or  remarks  concerning  him.  Indeed, 
were  the  story  which  some  tell  us  true,  one  thing  alone 
were  enough  to  make  him  memorable  to  posterity,  I 
mean  his  converting  Pliny  the  Younger,  that  learned  and 
eloquent  man,  proconsul  of  Bithyniu,  and  intimate  privy 
counsellor  to  Trajan  the  emperor.  For  so  they  tell  us,** 
that  returning  from  his  province  in  Bithynia,  he  landed 
in  Crete,  where  the  emperor  had  commanded  him  to  erect 

n  2  Cor.  viii.  6,  15,  16.  o  Pet.  de  Natal.  Hist.  SS.  lib.  7.  c  108.  p  2  Tim 
IV.  10.  q  Vet.  dc  Natal,  loc.  cit.  ex  Act.  S.  Titi  u  Zena  (uti  fcrtur)  s:ript 
Fl.  Pseudo-Dcxt.  Ciiron.  ad  Ann.  ccxx. 


(1 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS.  163 

■4,  temple  to  Jupiter:  which  was  accordingly  done,  and  no 
sooner  finished,  but  St.  Titus  cursed  it,  and  it  immedi- 
ately tumbled  to  the  ground.  The  man,  you  may  guess, 
was' strangely  troubled,  and  came  with  tears  to  the  holy- 
man  to  request  his  counsel,  who  advised  him  to  begin  it 
in  the  name  of  the  God  of  the  Christians,  and  it  would  not 
fail  to  prosper.  He  did  so,  and  having  finished  it,  was  him- 
self, together  with  his  son,  baptized.  Na}-,  some  to  make 
the  story  perfect,  add,  that  he  suffered  martyrdom  for  the 
faith  at  Novocomum,  a  city  of  Insubria  in  Italy,  where  he 
was  born.  The  reader  I  presume  will  not  expect  I 
should  take  pains  to  confute  this  story,  sufficiently  im- 
probable in  itself,  and  which  I  behold  as  just  of  the  sam.e 
metal,  and  coined  in  the  same  mint  with  that  of  his  mas- 
ter Trajan's  soul,  being  delivered  out  of  hell  by  the 
prayers  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great  so  gravely  told,  so  se- 
riously believed  by  many,  not  in  the  Greek  church  onh-, 
but  in  the  church  of  Rome  :  nay,  which  the  whole  east 
and  west  (if  we  may  believe  'Damascen)  held  to  be  >««V/sv 
i  iMi:>j;ov,  true  and  uncontrollable. 

J  0  St.  Titus  lived,  as  the  ancients  tell  us,  to  a  great 
age,  dying  about  the  ninety-fourth  year  of  his  life.  He 
died  in  peace  (says 'Sophronius  and  Tsidore)  and  lies  bu- 
ried in  Crete :  the  "Roman  Martyrology  adds,  that  he  was 
buried  in  that  very  church,  wherein  S.  Paul  ordained 
him  bishop  of  that  island  I  understand  him  where  a 
church  was  afterwards  built,  it  not  being  likely  there 
should  be  any  at  that  time.  At  Candia,  the  metropolis 
of  the  island,  there  is,  or  lately  was,  an  ancient  and  beau- 
tiful 'church  dedicated  to  St.  Titus,  wherein  under  the 
high  altar  his  remains  are  said  to  be  honourably  laid  up, 
and  are  both  by  the  Greeks  and  Latins  held  in  great  ve- 
neration. Though  what  is  become  of  them  since  that 
famous  city  lately  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turk,  that 
great  scourge  of  Christendom,  is  to  me  unknown  His 
festival  is  celebrated  in  the  western  church  on  the  fourth 


r  Damascen.     Serm.  Tspl  rin  iv  tit.  Kmoifj..     s  Ap.  Hieron.  de  Script,  in  Tito, 
t  De  vu.  &  ob.  SS  c.  87.  p.542.  a  Additni.  iv.  Jan.  p.  16.  v  Cotovic. 

Ilin.  lib.  1.  c.  12.  p.  60. 


164  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  TITUS. 

day  of  January,  in  the  Greek  church  August  the  twenty- 
fifth,  and  among  the  Christians  in  Egypt  (as  appears  by 
the  Arabic  calendar  published  by  "^Mr.  Selden)  the  twen- 
ty-second of  the  month  Barmahath,  answering  to  our 
March  the  eighteenth,  is  consecrated  to  his  memory. 

w  De  Synedr.  Tom.  3.  c.  15.  p.  396, 


ti 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS 

THE  AREOPAGITE. 


Dionysius  born  at  Athens.  The  quality  of  his  parents.  His  domestic 
studies.  His  foreif^n  travels.  F,gypt  frequented  as  the  stai)le  place  of 
all  recondite  learning.  His  residence  at  Keliopolis.  The  strange  and 
miraculous  eclipse  at  our  Saviour's  passion.  Di-iuysius's  remarks 
upon  it.  His  return  to  Athens,  and  bemg  made  one  of  the  Judges  of 
the  Areopagus.  The  nature  of  this  court  :  the  number  and  quality  of 
its  Judges.  St.  Paul  arraigned  before  it  :  his  discourse,  and  its  success. 
Dionysius's  conversion.  His  further  instruction  by  Hierotheus.  Hie- 
rotheus,  who.  Dionysius  constituted  bishop  of  Athens.  A  brief  ac- 
count of  his  story  according  to  those  that  confound  him  with  Dionysius 
bishop  of  Paris.  These  shown  to  be  distinct.  The  origirial  and  pj-cce- 
dure  of  the  mistake  niquired  into.  A  probable  account  given  of  it.  Di- 
onysius's martyrdom  at  Athens,  and  the  time  of  it.  A  fabulous  miracle 
reported  of  his  scull.  The  desc-  iption  of  his  person,  and  tiie  hyperbo- 
lical commendations  whicli  the  Greeks  give  of  him.  The  bocks  as- 
scribed  to  him.  These  none  of  his.  Apollinaris  (probably)  showed  to 
be  the  author  of  them.  Several  passages  of  the  ancients  noted  to  that 
purpose.  Books  why  oft  published  under  other  men's  names.  T.'iese 
books  the  fountain  of  enthusiasm  and  mystical  theology.  A  passage  in 
them  instanced  in  to  that  purpose. 

1.  ST.  DYONYSIUS  was  born  at  Athens,  the  eye  of 
Greece,  and  fountain  of  learnmg  and  humanity,  the  only 
place  that  without  competition  had  for  so  many  ages 
maintained  an  uncontrolled  reputation  for  arts  and  sci- 
ences, and  to  which  there  was  an  universal  confluence  of 
persons  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  accomplish  them- 
selves in  the  more  polite  and  useful  studies.  Though  we 
find  nothing  particularly  concerning  his  parents,  yet  we 
may  safely  conclude  them  to  have  been  persons  of  a  no- 
ble  quality,  at  least  of  a  better  rank  than  ordinary,  seeing 


166  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

none  were  admitted  to  be  Areopagite  Judges  (as  *  one  who 
knew  very  well  informs  us)  haiv  "'  xax^c  ^£>sviTt?,  4  7roA>.i>v ^.^ititv ^^ 
Cu^fOT-j\-,^h  'zx^  ^loihSiht-ifj.ini,  unless  they  were  nobly  born,  and 
eminently  exemplary  for  a  virtuous  and  a  sober  life.  Be- 
ing born  in  the  very  midst  of  arts  and  civility,  his  educa- 
tion could  not  but  be  learned  and  ingenuous,  especially 
considering  ihe  advantages  of  his  birth  and  fortunes. 
Accordingly  he  was  ^  instructed  in  all  the  learned  sciences 
of  Greece,  wherein  he  made  such  vast  improvements^ 
that  he  easily  outstript  any  of  his  time  :  scarce  any  sect 
or  institution  in  philosophy  then  in  vogue,  which  he  had 
not  considered  and  made  trial  of :  it  does  not  indeed  ap- 
pear to  which  of  them  he  particularly  devoted  and  applied 
himself;  and  they  who  suppose  him  to  have  addicted 
himself  to  the  school  of  Plato,  do  it,  I  conceive  it  for  no 
other  reason,  than  because  the  doctrine  contained  in  the 
books  that  bear  his  name,  seems  so  near  of  kin  to  the 
principles  of  that  noble  sect. 

2.  But  it  was  not  an  homebred  institution,  or  all  the 
advantages  which  Athens  could  aiford,  that  could  fill  the 
vast  capacities  of  his  mind,  which  he  therefore  resolved  to 
polish  and  improve  by  foreign  travels.  Being  in  the 
prime  and  vigour  of  his  youth,  about  the  age  of  twenty- 
five  years, '  he  took  with  him  one  ApoUophanes  a  rheto- 
rician, his  fellow-student,  and  (if  ^  Syncellus  say  true)  his 
kinsman,  who  was  afterwards  at  Smyrna,  master  to  Pole- 
mon  the  Laodicean,  as  he  was  to  Aristides  the  famous 
philosopher  and  apologist  for  the  Christians.  Thus  fur- 
nished with  a  suitable  companion,  he  is  said  to  have  gone 
for  Egypt,  to  converse  with  their  philosophers  and  vrise 
men,  that  he  might  perfect  himself  in  the  study  of  the 
mathematics,  and  the  more  mysterious  and  recondite  parts 
of  learning.  Egypt  had  in  all  ages  been  looked  upon  as 
the  prime  school  not  only  of  astrology,  but  of  the  more 
abstruse  and  uncommon  speculations  of  theology,  and 
tfhe  great  masters  of  wisdom  and  divinity  among  the  Gen- 

a  If'ici-.  Or:i^  Areopag.  p.  147.  v-d.   Maxim.  Prolog-.  Oper.  S.  Dionys.  Pref. 
png.  34.  b  Sii'ul.  in  vcc  amC@'.  p.  "44. 

c  Siiid.  ubi  siinr  Maxim.  Pachyin.  S)Micel.  aliique  p'ures, 
fi-Encom.  S.  Dionj5.  p.  349.  Tom.  1. 


I 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  167 

tiles  never  though  they  had  gained  enough,  till  they  had 
crowned  their  studies  by  conversing  with  the  Eg}  ptian 
sages.  Hence  it  was  frequented  by  Orpheus,  Ho- 
mer, Solon,  Thales,  by  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  and 
whom  not?  nay,  of  Pythagoras  ''Clemens  of  Alex- 
andria reports  that  he  suffered  himself  to  be  circum- 
cised, that  so  he  might  be  admitted  m 'ri  ihTo.,  to  the 
concealed  rites  and  notions  of  their  religion,  and  be  ac- 
quainted with  their  secret  and  mystical  philosophy.  The 
place  he  fixed  at  was  Heliopolis,  a  city  between  Coptus 
and  Alexandria,  where  the  Egyptian  priests  for  the  most 
resided,  as  a  place  admirably  advantageous  for  the  con- 
templation of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy and  astronomy  ;  and  where  'Strabo  (who  lived 
much  about  this  time)  tells  us  he  was  showed  the  habita- 
tions of  the  priests,  and  the  apartments  of  Plato  and  Eu- 
doxus,  who  lived  here  thirteen  years ;  nay,  a  very  an- 
cient ^historian  assures  us,  that  Abraham  himself  lived 
here,  and  taught  the  Egyptian  priests  astronomy,  and 
other  parts  of  learning. 

3.  Dionysius  no  doubt  plied  his  studies  in  this  place, 
during  whose  stay  there,  one  memorable  accident  is  re- 
ported. The  Son  of  God  about  this  time  was  delivered 
up  at  Jerusalem  to  an  acute  and  shameful  death  by  the 
hands  of  violence  and  injustice  ;  when  the  sun,  as  if 
ashamed  to  behold  so  great  a  wickedness,  hid  his  head, 
•and  put  on  mourning  to  wait  upon  the  funerals  of  its 
maker.  This  eclipse  was  contrary  to  all  the  known 
rules  and  laws  of  nature,  it  happening  in  a  full  moon, 
when  the  moon  is  in  its  greatest  distance  from  the  .sun, 
and  consequently  not  liable  to  a  conjunction  with  him, 
the  moon  moving  itself  under  the  sun  from  its  oriental 
to  its  occidental  point,  and  thence  back  bv  a  retrograde 
motion,  causing  a  strange  defection  of  light  for  three  hours 
together.  That  there  was  such  a  wondcrfni  and  preter- 
natural darkness  over  all  the  earth  for  three  hours  at  the 


e  Slromat.lib.  1.  p.  302.  f  Geograjih.  lib.  l".  p.  80fi.  ^  Alexami. 

Polyhlst.  llisl.  .:e  Judais  ap.  Euseb.  p,  a^p.  Evang'.  1.  ?.  c.  IT  p.  41P. 


168  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

time  of  our  Saviour's  suffering,  whereby  the  sun  was 
darkened,  is  unanimously  attested  by  the  evangelical  his- 
torians ;  and  not  by  them  only,  but'^Phlegon  Trallianus 
sometimes  servant  to  the  emperor  Trajan,  speaks  of  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun  that  happened  about  that  time,  ms>/?-* 
Tttv  \yvu,fi<7uivuy  TTgoTi^ov,  tlic  grcatcst  of  auy  that  had  been  ever 
known,  whereby  the  day  was  turned  into  night,  and  the 
stars  appeared  at  noon-day,  an  earthquake  also  accom- 
panying it,  whereby  many  houses  at  Nice  in  Bithynia  were 
overturned.  Apollophancs  beholding  this  strange  eclipse, 
cried  out  to  Dionysius  that  these  were  changes  and  revo- 
lutions of  some  great  affairs,  to  whom  the  other  replied, 
that  either  God  suffered^  or  at  least  sympathized  and  bore 
part  with  him.  that  did.  I  confess  these  passages  are  not  to 
be  found  in  the  most  ancient  writers  of  the  church ;  but 
that  ought  to  be  no  just  exception,  when  we  consider  what 
little  care  was  then  taken  to  consign  things  to  writing,  and 
how  great  a  part  of  those  few  ancient  records  that  were 
written  were  quickly  lost,  whereof  Eusebius  sufficiently 
complains;  not  to  say,  that  a  great  many  writings  might, 
and  did  escape  his  notice  ;  and  'Maximus,  I  remember, 
answering  the  objection,  that  the  books  ascribed  to  St. 
Denys  are  not  mentioned  by  Eusebius,  tells  us,  that  him- 
self had  met  with  several  pieces  of  the  ancients,  of  which 
not  the  least  footstep  in  Eusebius.  But  however  that  be, 
it  concludes  not  against  the  matter  of  fact,  many  things 
though  never  entered  upon  record,  being  as  to  the  sub- 
stance of  them,  preserved  by  constant  tradition  and  re- 
port. I  deny  not  but  that  the  several  authors  who  report 
this  passage,  might  immediately  derive  it  out  of  the 
epistles  said  to  be  written  to  St.  Polycarp  and  Apollo- 
phancs. But  then  cannot  suppose  that  the  author  of  these 
epistles  did  purely  feign  the  matter  of  fact  of  his  own 
head,  but  rather  delivered  what  tradition  had  conveyed 
down  to  his  time.  Indeed  that  which  would  more  shrewd- 
ly shake  the  foundation  of  the  story,  if  it  be  true,  is  what 
''Origcn  supposes,  that  this  darkness  that  was  over  all  the 

h  Chionic.lib.  13.  apivl  Enseb.  Chron.  ad  Ann.  Chr.  Kwii.  vid.  Grxca  "ET 
AT.  [).  202.  vid.  Orig.  c  mtr.  Cfls.l.  2.]).  80  &  Cliff.  Alt-xandr.  :id  Ann.  Tibet- 
xviii.  Indict.  4.  OlympKid.  ccii.  4  p.  520.  i  Prolog,  ante  oper.  S.  Dlo- 
Hys.  p.  36.  k  Tract,  xxxv,  in  Mattb.  fol.  m.89.  col.  1. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  1G9 

earthy  and  the  earthquake  that  attended  our  Lord's  pas- 
sion, extended  no  further  than  Judea,  as  some  of  the 
prodigies  no  further  tlian  Jerusalem.  But  to  what  de- 
grees of  truth  or  probability  that  opinion  may  approve 
itself,  I  leave  to  others  to  inquire. 

4.  Dionysius  having  finished  his  studies  at  Heliopolis, 
returned  to  Athens,  incomparably  fitted  to  serve  his 
country,  and  accordingly  was  advanced  to  be  one  of  the 
judges  of  the  Areopagus,  a  place  of  great  honour  and 
renown.  The  Areopagus  was  a  famous  senate  house 
built  upon  a  hill  in  Athens,  wherein  assembled  their 
great  court  of  justice,  Ta>vii'TiTc"E^x«5-;(i'w3i?-iigia)v  T<//i»Ta7-v4  *7'ttT=<7ov, 
as  ''one  calls  it,  the  most  sacred  and  venerable  tri- 
bunal in  all  Greece.  Under  their  cognizance  came  all 
the  greater  and  more  capital  causes,  and  especially  mat- 
ters of  religion,  blasphemy  against  the  gods,  iiiid  con- 
tempt of  the  holy  mysteries  ;  and  therefore  St.  Paul  was 
arraigned  before  this  court,  as  a  setter  forth  of  strarige 
gods,  when  he  preached  to  them  concerning  Jesus  and 
Anastasis,  or  the  resurrection.  None  might  be  of  this 
council  but  persons  of  birth  and  quality,  wise  and  pru- 
dent men,  and  of  very  strict  and  severe  manners,  and  so 
gi'eat  an  awe  and  reverence  did  this  solemn  and  grave 
assembly  strike  into  those  that  sat  in  it,  that  'Isocrates 
tells  us,  that  in  his  time,  when  they  were  somev^  hat  de- 
generated from  their  ancient  virtue,  however  otherwise 
men  were  irregular  and  exorbitant,  yet  once  chosen  into 
this  senate,  they  presently  ceased  from  their  vicious  in- 
clinations, and  chose  rather  to  conform  to  the  laws  and 
manners  of  that  court, «  tSk  ctirav  ««*(«/?  5^^;vs;y,  than  to  continue 
in  their  wild  and  debauched  course  of  life.  They  were 
exactly  upright  and  impartial  in  their  proceedings,  and 
heard  causes  at  night,  or  in  the  dark,  that  the  person  of 
the  plaintiflp  or  the  pleader  might  have  no  undue  infiuence 
upon  them.  Their  sentence  was  decretory  and  final, 
and  from  their  determination  lay  no  appeal.  Their  num- 
ber was  uncertain,  by  some  restrained  to  nine,  by  others 
enlarged  to  thirty-one,  by  others  to  fifty-one,  and  to  more 

k  Aristid.  Tom.  1.  p.  331.  1  Loco  supi\  laudat 

Y 


170  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

by  some.  Indeed  the  Novemviri,  who  were  the  Basileus 
or  king,  the  Archon,  the  Polemarchus,  and  the  six  Thes- 
mothetas,  Avere  the  constant  seminary  and  nursery  of  this 
great  assembly,  who  having  discharged  their  several  offi- 
ces, annually  passed  into  the  Areopagus,  and  therefore 
when  Socrates  was  condemned  by  this '"  court,  we  find  no 
less  than  two  hundred  fourscore  and  one,  giving  their 
votes  against  him,  besides  those  whose  white  stones 
were  for  his  absolution :  and  in  an  ancient  inscription 
upon  a  column  in  the  Acropolis  at  Athens,"  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Rufus  Festus,  proconsul  of  Greece,  and  one 
of  these  Judges,  mention  is  made  of  the  Areopagite  Se- 
nate of  three  himdred. 

5,  In  this  grave  and  venerable  judicature  sat  our  St. 
Denys,  when  St.  Paul  about  the  year  forty-nine  or  fifty, 
came  to  Athens,  where  he  resolutely  asserted  the  cause 
of  Christianity  against  the  attempts  of  the  Stoic  and  Epi- 
curean philosophers,  who  mainly  appeared  against  it. 
The  Athenians,  who  were  infinitely  curious  and  super- 
stitious in  matters  of  religion,  not  knowing  what  to  make 
of  this  new  and  strange  doctrine  that  he  taught,  presently 
broil ght  him  before  the  Areopagite  senate,  to  whom  the 
proper  cognizance  of  such  causes  did  belong.  Here,  in  a 
neat  and  eloquent  discourse,  delivered  not  with  greater 
freedom  of  mind,  then  strength  of  reason,  he  plainly  de- 
monstrated the  folly  and  absurdity  of  those  many  vain  de- 
ities, whom  they  blindly  worshipped,  explained  to  them 
that  Infinite  Being  that  made  and  governed  the  world,  and 
what  indispensable  obligations  he  had  laid  upon  all  man- 
kind to  worship  and  adore  him,  and  how  much  he  had 
enforced  all  former  engagements  to  gratitude  and  obedi- 
ence, to  repentance  and  reformation  by  this  last  and  best 
dispensation,  by  sending  his  Son  to  publish  so  excellent  a 
religion  to  the  world.  His  discourse  however  entertain- 
ed by  some  with  scorn  and  laughter,  and  gravely  put  oft' 
by  others,  yet  wanted  not  a  happy  influence  upon  many, 

m     D.  Laert.  I.  2.  in  vit.  Socrat.  p.  115. 

n  H    EH   Al'HOnArOT   ROTAH    T.'iN    TPIAKOIinN,    KAI   O   AHMOS   O    A- 
eHNAiaN     Cxtei-a  vid.  apud  R.  Voluten-an.  Comment.  Urban.  1.  8.  col.  518. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  171 

whom  it  convinced  of  the  reasonableness  and  divinity  of 
the  Christian  faitli  :   among  whom  was  our  Dionysius, 
one  of  the  Judges  that  sat  upon  him,   and  Damaris  his 
wife  (for  so  "St.  Chrysostom  and  others  make  her)  and 
probably   his    whole    house.     An       author  (I  confess 
I    know   not   by    what   authority)    relates   a   particular 
dispute    between    Dionysius  and  St.    Paul   concerning 
the  unknown  God,  who  as  God- man  was  to  appear  in  the 
latter  ages  to  reform  the  world  ;  this  the  apostle  shov/ed 
to  be  the  Holy  Jesus,  lately  come  down  from  Heaven,  and 
so  satisfied  St.  Denys  that  he  prayed  him  to  intercede  with 
Heaven,  that  he  might  be  fully  confirmed  in  this  belief. 
The  next  day  St.  Paul  having  restored  sight  to  one  that 
was  born  blind,  charged  him  to  go  to  Dionysius,  and  by 
that  token  claim  his  promise  to  be  his  convert ;   who  be- 
ing amazed  at  this  sight,  readily  renounced  his  idolatry, 
and  was  with  his  house  baptized  into  the  faith  of  Christ. 
But  I  know  the  credit  of  my  author  too  well  to  lay  any- 
great  stress  upon  this  relation,  and  the  rather  because  I 
find  that  Baronius  himself  is  not  willing  to  venture  his 
faith  upon  it.     To  which  I  might  add'i  St.  Chrysostom's 
observation,    that    the    Areopagite    was    converted  *^» 
j>>f^i,-},^U(  juivitf,  only  by  St.   Paul's  discourse,   there   being 
no  miracle  that  we  know  of,  that  might  promote  and  fur- 
ther it. 

6.  Being  baptized,  he  was,  we  are  '^  told,  committed  to 
the  care  and  tutorage  of  St.  Hierotheus,  to  be  by  him 
further  instructed  in  the  faith,  a  person  not  so  nmch  as 
mentioned  by  any  of  the  ancients,  which  creates  with  me 
a  vehement  suspicion,  that  it  is  only  a  feigned  name,  and 
that  no  such  person  ever  really  was  in  the  world.  In- 
deed the  '  Greek  Meuccon  makes  him  to  have  been  one 
of  the  nine  Senators  of  the  x\reopagus,  to  have  been  con- 
verted by  St.  Paul,  and  by  him  made  bishop  of  Athens, 
and  then  appointed  tutor  to  St.  Denys.     '  Others  make 

o  Dn  sacerdot.  1.  4.  c.  7.  p.  67.  T.  4.  Ambros.  Epist.  82.  p.  198.  Tom.  3. 
J)  Hild.  in  passio.  S.  Dionys.  n.  6,  7,  8.  ap.  Sur.  Octob.  IX.  p.  122. 
q  Loc.  supr.  citat. 

r  S.  Metaphr.  ap.  Sur.  ibid.  Maxim.  Syncel.  ubi  supr.  Pseudo  Dionys.  de  di- 
vin.  nnmiii.  c,  2-  p.  175.  T.  1. 

t  Pseudo-Dext.  Chron.  ad  Ann.  Cbr.  LXZI. 


172  THE  LIFE  OF  DIONYSIUS. 

him  by  birtli  a  Spaniard,  first  bishop  of  Athens,  and  then 
traveUing  into  his  own  country,  Bishop  of  Segovia  in 
Spain.  And  both  I  believe  with  equal  truth.  Nor  pro- 
bably had  such  a  person  ever  been  thought  of,  had  there 
not  been  some  intimations  of  such  an  instructor  in  Dio- 
nysius's  works,  confirmed  by  the  ScoUasts  that  writ 
upon  him,  and  afterwards  by  others  improved  into  a  for- 
mal story :  As  for  St.  Dionysius,  he  is  made  to  travel 
with  St.  Paul  for  three  years  after  his  conversion,  and 
then  to  have  been  constituted  by  him  bishop  of  Athens ; 
so  that  it  was  necessary  it  seems  to  pack  Hierotheus  into 
Spain,  that  room  might  be  made  for  him.  Indeed  that 
Dionysius  was,  and  that  without  any  affront  to  St.  Hiero- 
theus, the  first  bishop  of  Athens,  we  are  assured  by  an  au- 
thori  y  that  cannot  be  doubted,  "  Dionysius  the  famous 
bishop  of  Corinth  (who  lived  not  long  after  him)  expressly 
affirming  it ;  and  ""  Nicephorus  adds,  what  is  probable 
enough,  that  it  was  done  with  St.  Paul's  own  hands.  I 
shall  but  mention  his  journey  to  Jerusalem  to  meet  the 
apostles,  who  are  said  to  have  come  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  to  be  present  at  the  last  hours  of  the  Blessed  Virgm^ 
and  his  several  visitations  of  the  churches  in  Phrygia  and 
Achaia,  to  plant  or  confirm  the  fiiith. 

7.  All  wjilch,  supposing  they  were  true,  yet  here  we 
must  take  our  leave.  For  now  the  writers  of  his  life  ge- 
nerally make  him  prepare  for  a  much  longer  journey. 
Having  settled  his  affairs  at  Athens,  and  substituted  a  suc- 
cessor in  his  see,  he  is  said  to  go  to  Rome  (a  brief  ac- 
count of  things  shall  suffice,  where  no  truth  lies  at  the 
bottom  :)  at  Rome  he  was  despatched  by  St.  Clemens 
into  France,  where  he  planted  the  faith,  and  founded  an 
Episcopal  see  at  Paris,  whence  after  many  years,  about 
the  ninetieth  year  of  his  age,  he  returned  into  the  east,  to 
converse  with  St.  John  at  Ephesus  thence  back  again  to 
Paris,  where  he  suffered  martyrdom,  and  among  infinite 
other  miracles  reported  of  him,  he  is  said  to  have  taken 
up  his  head,  after  it  had  been  cut  off  by  the  executioners, 
and  to  have  carried  it  in  his  hands  (an  angel  going  be- 

u  Apud  Eiiseb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  3.  c.  4.  p.  74.  and  1.  4.  c.  23.  p.  144'. 
V  Niceph.  H.  Ecc.  1.  2.  c.  20.  p.  167. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIOXYSIUS.  173 

fore,  and  an  heavenly  chorus  attending  him  all  the  way) 
for  two  miles  together,  till  he  came  to  the  place  of  his  in- 
terment, where  he  gently  laid  it  and  himself  down,  and 
was  there  honourably  entombed.  This  is  the  sum  of  a  ve- 
ry tedious  story.  A  story  so  improbable  in  itself,  so  di- 
rectly contrary  to  what '"  Severn s  Sulpitius  afiirms,  that 
none  were  martyred  for  the  faith  in  France,  till  the  fifth 
persecution  under  the  reign  of  M.  x\urelius  Antoninus  ; 
that  I  shall  not  spend  much  time  in  its  confutation.  Es- 
pecially when  the  thing  has  been  unanswerably  done  by 
so  many  learned  and  ingenious  men  in  the  church  of 
Rome,  and  by  none  more  eifectually  than  Sirmond  and 
Launoy,  who  have  cleared  it  beyond  all  possibilities  of 
just  exception. 

8.  Indeed  we  find  in  several  very  ancient  ^  Marty r- 
ologies,  as  also  in  ^'  Gregory  bishop  of  Tours,  who  re- 
ports it  out  of  the  Acts  of  Saturninus  the  Martyr,  that 
one  Dionysius  with  some  others  was  sent  by  the  bishop 
of  Rome  into  France  in  the  time  of  Decius  the  emperor, 
Ann.  Chr.  CCL.  where  he  preached  the  Christian  faith, 
and  became  bishop  of  Paris,  and  after  great  torments  and 
sufferings,  was  beheaded  for  his  resolute  and  constant 
profession  of  religion,  and  accordingly  his  martyrdom  is 
recorded  in  the  most  ancient  Martyrologies,  upon  a  day 
distinct  from  that  of  the  Athenian  Dionysius,  and  the 
same  miracles  ascribed  to  him,  that  are  reported  of  the 
other.  And  that  this  was  the  first  and  true  foundation  of 
the  story,  I  suppose  no  wise  man  will  doubt.  Nor  in- 
deed is  the  least  mention  made  of  any  such  thing,  I  am 
sure  not  any  in  writer  of  name  and  note,  till  the  times  of 
Charles  the  great  :  when  "^  Ludo\  icus  emperor,  and  king 
of  France  wrote  to  Hilduin  abbot  of  St.  Denys,  to  pick 
up  whatever  memoirs  he  could  find  concerning  him, 
either  in  the  books  of  the  Greeks  or  Latins,  or  such  re- 
cords as  they  had  at  home,   and  to  digest  and  compile 

w  Sacr  Hist. lib.  2.  pag.  It*?. 

X  Usiiard.   Martyr.   Calend.  Octob.  et  VII.  Id.  Octob.  MartvP.    Eedae   VII. 
Id.  Oct.b. 

y  Cre.^,  Tnron.  Hist.  Franc.  li!>.  1.  c.  28.  p.  265.  Edit.  Du.  Chesn. 
2  Vid.  Episl.  ejus,  et  Hilduin.  Rescript,  apod  Soi".  loc.cit  at. 


174  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

them  into  orderly  tracts.  He  did  so,  and  furnished  out 
a  very  large  and  particular  relation,  which  was  quickly 
improved  and  defended  by  Hincmar,  bishop  of  Rhemes, 
scholar  to  Hilduin,  and  Anastasius  Bibliothecarius  of 
Rome,  to  whom  the  Greek  writers  of  that  and  the  fol- 
lowing ages  readily  gave  their  vote  and  suffrage.  Nor 
has  a  late  \iuthor  m.iich  mended  the  matter  in  point  of 
antiquity,  who  tells  lus  that  in  a  convention  of  bishops  in 
France,  held  ami.  825.  ten  years  before  Hilduin  wrote  his 
Areopagitics,  mention  is  made  of  St.  Dionysius's  being 
sent  into  France  by  Clemens  St.  Peter's  successor.  For 
we  can  easily  allow  that  there  might  about  that  time  be 
some  blind  and  obscure  tradition,  though  the  fragment 
of  the  Synod,  which  he  there  produces,  speaks  not  one 
svllable  of  this  Dionysius's  being  the  Arcopagite,  or 
having  any  relation  to  Athens.  In  short  the  case  seems 
plainly  tliis  : 

9.  Hilduin  set  on  by  his  potent  patron,  partly  that  he 
might  exalt  the  honour  of  France,  partly  to  advance  the 
reputation  of  his  particular  convent,  finding  an  obscure 
Dionysius  to  have  been  bishop  of  Paris,  removes  him  an 
age  or  two  higher,  and  makes  him  the  same  with  him  of 
Athens,  a  person  of  greater  honour  and  veneration,  and 
partly  from  the  records,  ]:iartly  from  the  traditions  current 
among  themselves,  draws  up  a  formul  account  of  him 
from  first  to  last ;  adding,  it  is  like,  what  he  thought  good 
of  his  own,  to  make  up  the  story.  These  commentaries 
of  liis,  we  may  suppose,  were  quickly  conveyed  to  Rome, 
where  being  met  with  by  the  Greeks,  who  came  upon 
frequent  embassies  to  that  see  about  that  time,  they  were 
carried  over  to  Constantinople,  out  of  which  Methodius 
(who  had  himself  been  aprocrisiarius  or  embassador  from 
Nicephorus  the  Greek  patriarch  to  pope  Pascal  at  Rome, 
and  after  infinite  troubles  was  advanced  to  the  patriarchate 
of  Constantinople)  furnishes  himself  with  materials  to 
write  the  life  of  Dion}  sius  ;  for  that  he  had  them  not  out 
of  the  records  of  his  own  church  is  plain,  in  that  when 

a  J.  Mabillon.  not.  a>l  Epist.  Ilirvcmar.  inter  Analect.  Veter.  p.  63. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  175 

Hilduin  set  upon  composing  his  Areopagitics,  he  ex- 
pressly savs,^  that  the  Greeks  had  written  nothing  con- 
cerning  the   martyrdom   of  St.    Den}s,  the  particulars 
whereof,  by  reason  of  the  vast  distance,  they  could  not 
attain.     Out  of  Hilduin,  there-fore,  or  at  least  some  re- 
ports of  that  time,  Methodius  must  needs  derive  his  in- 
telligence i  but   most  probably  from  Hilduin,  between 
whose  relation  and  that  of  Methodius,  there  is  so  exact 
an  agreement,  not  only   in  particular  passages,  but  oft- 
times  in  the  very  same  words,  as  "^Monsieur  Launoy  has 
demonstrated   by  a    particular   collation.     Methodius's 
tract  was   by  the   Greek  embassadors  quickly  brought 
from    Constantinople  to  Rome,  where  ""Anastasius  con- 
fesses he  met  with  it,  translated  it  into  Latin,  and  thence 
transmitted  it  into  France,  where  it  was  read,  owned,  and 
published    by  'Hincmar,    as  appears    by  his  epistle  to 
Charles  the  emperor.     Where  he  plainly  tells  us,  that  no 
sooner  had  he  read  this  life  written  by  Methodius,  but  he 
found  it  admirably  to  agree  v.ith  what  he  had  read  in  his 
youth  (he  means  I  doubt  not,  the  writings  of  Hilduin)  by 
whom  and  how  the  acts  of  St.  Denys  and  his  companions 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Romans,  and  thence  to  the 
notice  of  the  Greeks.     This  is  the  most  likely  pedigree 
and  procedure  of  the  story  that  I  can  think  of;  and  from 
hence  how  easy  was  it  for  the  after  writers  both  of  the  Vvcs- 
tern  and  the  eastern  church  to  swallow  down  a  story,  thus 
plausibly  fitted  to  their  taste  '?     Nor  had  the  Greeks  any 
reason  over  nicely  to  examine,  or  reject  what  made  so 
much  for  the  honour  of  their  church  and  nation,    and 
seemed  to  lay  not  France  onlv,  but  the  whole  western 
church  under  an  obligation  to  them,  for  furnishing  them 
with  so  great  and  excellent  a  person.     But  to  return  to 
our  Dionysius. 

10.  Though  we  cannot  doubt  but  that  he  behaved  him- 
self with  all  diligence  and  fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  his 
office  ;  yet  because  the  ancients  have  conveyed  down  no 

b  Rescript,  ad.  Ludov.  Imper.  n.  10.  ibid.  c  Rcspon.s.  di.'^cass.  cap.  9.  n. 

120;  d  Epist.  ad  Carol.  Calv.     Imp.  apud.  Sur.  ibid.  p.  1.33.  e£vfjt 

apud.    Sur.  ubi  siipr.  k  Mabillon.loc.  chat 


176  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

particulars  to  our  hands,  we  shall  not  venture  upon  re- 
ports of  false,  or  at  best  doubtful  credit.  Nothing  of  cer- 
tainty can  be  recovered  of  him,  more  than  what  Aristides 
the  Christian  philosopher  (who  himself  lived,  and  was 
probably  born  at  Athens,  not  long  after  Dionysius;  relates 
in  the  ^Apology  which  he  published  for  the  Christian 
religion,  that  after  a  most  resolute  and  eminent  confession 
of  the  faith,  after  having  undergone  several  of  the  seve- 
rest kinds  of  torment,  he  gave  the  last  and  great  testimony 
to  it  by  laying  down  his  life.  This  was  done,  as  is  most 
probable,  under  the  reign  of  Domitian,  as  is  confessed 
(betrayed  into  it  by  a  secret  instinct  of  truth)  by  abbot 
Hilduin,  Methodius,  and  their  followers:  while  others  ex- 
tend it  to  the  times  of  Trajan,  others  to  the  reign  of  Adrian, 
who  entered  upon  the  empire  ann.  117,  partly  that  they 
might  leave  room  enough  for  the  account  which  they  give 
of  him,  partly  to  preserve  the  authority  of  his  writings, 
wherein  a  passage  is  cited  out  of  Ignatius's  epistles,  writ- 
ten just  before  his  martyrdom,  ann.  107.  The  reader  I 
hope  will  not  expect  from  me  an  account  of  the  miracles 
said  to  be  done  by  him  either  before  or  since  his  death, 
or  of  the  fierce  contests  that  are  between  several  places 
in  the  Roman  church  concerning  his  reliques.  One  pas- 
sage however  I  shall  not  omit.  In  a  village  in  Luxem- 
burg, not  far  from  Treves,  is  a  church  dedicated  to  St. 
Denys,  wherein  is  kept  his  scull,  at  least  a  piece  of  it,  on 
the  crown  whereof  there  is  a  white  cross  while  the  other 
parts  of  the  scull  are  black.  This  common  tradition,  and 
some  ^authors  to  avouch  it,  will  have  to  be  made,  when 
St.  Paul  laid  his  hands  upon  him  at  his  consecration. 
Which  if  so,  I  have  no  more  to  observe,  but  that  orders 
(which  the  church  of  Rome  make  a  sacrament)  did  here 
even  in  a  literal  sense  confer  an  indelible  character  and 
mark  upon  him. 

11.  His  TiTT®-  Qa^fA^iiKoc,  the  shape  and  figure  of  his  body 
is  by  the  ''Greek  Meuteon  thus  described :  he  was  of  a 
middle  stature,  slender,  fair,  but  inclining   to  paleness, 

f  Ap'id  us!iard.  &  Adnn.  Mart.  v.  Non.  Octobr.  g  Vid.  author,  cilat 

ap.  P.  Halluix.  not.  ad  vit.  Dionys.  241.         )i  Kij  y  tJ  OkJoC^. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  1^7 

his  nose  gracefully  bending,  hollow-eyed  with  short  eye- 
brows, his  ear  large,  his  hair  thick  and  white,  his  beard 
moderately  long,  but  very  thin.  For  the  image  of  his 
mind  expressed  in  his  discourses,  and  the  excellent  con- 
duct of  his  life,  the  Greeks  according  to  their  magnifying 
humour  as  well  as  language,  bestow  most  hyperbolical 
elogies  and  commendations  on  him.  ^  They  style  him, 
ii^o<pAvro^A,  i,  Tw  ttTCf7«T»»  -^fj^iy,  the  sacred  interpreter  and  con- 
templator  of  hidden  and  unspeakable  mysteries,  and  an 
unsearchable  depth  of  heavenly  knowledge  ;   T5/a<r.«cy  s-r:x9. 

yov,  Tav  J-rpf  J  iivoiOLl  ^aurrotav  ^u^iy-ju^ruv  3-K?;'gotr  o^yeiyir,  thC  J  riTlltl/  cIlVlTie^ 

the  divine  instrument  of  those  enlivening  graces  that  are 
above  all  comprehension.  They  say  of  him  that  his  life 
was  wonderful,  his  discourse  more  wonderful ;  his  tongue 
full  of  light,  his  mouth  breathing  an  holy  fire;  but  his 
mind  *x§/fi;c  s-fsuJ^.s-dT®-,  most  exactly  like  to  God ;  with  a 
great  deal  more  of  the  like  nature  up  and  down  their 
offices.  And  certainly  were  the  notions  which  he  has 
given  us  of  the  celestial  hierarchy  and  orders  of  angels, 
and  the  things  of  that  supramundane  state,  as  clear  and 
certain,  as  some  would  persuade  us,  he  might  deserve 
that  title  which  'others  gave  him  vii^CyKt  s  ;r^«v«  tS  ig^tvS,  the 
TVing^  or  the  bird  of  heaven. 

12.  The  great  and  evident  demonstration  of  his  wis- 
dom and  eloquence,  we  are  told,''  are  the  works  which 
he  left  behind  him,  the  notions  and  language  wherewith 
they  are  clothed,  being  so  lofty  and  sublime,  as  are  scarce- 
ly capable  to  be  the  issue  of  a  mere  mortal  creature. 
Books  infinitely  intricate  and  perplext  (as  our  country- 
man 'Johannes  Scotus,  who  first  translated  them  into 
Latin,  tell  us)  far  beyond  the  reach  of  modern  apprehen- 
sions, and  which  few  are  able  to  pierce  into,  both  for  their 
antiquity,  and  sublimeness  of  those  heavenly  mysteries, 
whereof  they  treat.  A  work  so  grateful  to  all  specula- 
tive inquirers,  into  the  natures  of  things,  and  the  more 

h  Ibid. 

i  Vid.  Anastas.  Biblioth.  Epist.  ap.  Sur.  loc.  cit.  p.  132.  Chrysost.  de  Psewdt- 
Proph.  p.  401.  Tom.  6. 
k  Suid.  in  voce  Aiovyj-*®',  p.  745.  Niceph,  H.  Eccl.l.  2.  c.  20.  p.  167. 
I  Epist.  ad  Carol.  Calv.  F.-anc.  Rej.  ap.  Usser. Epist,  Hibern  p.  59. 

2 


178  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DOINYSIUS. 

abstruse  and  recondite  parts  of  learning,  that  (if  Siiidas 
say  true)  some  of  the  heathen  philosophers,  and  particu- 
larly Proclus,  often  borrows  not  only  his  notions,  but  his 
very  words  and  phrases  from  him  ;  whence  he  suspects, 
that  some  of  the  philosophers  at  Athens  stole  those  books 
of  his  mentionecl  in  the  epistle  dedicatory  to  St.  Timo- 
thy, and  which  now  are  wanting,  and  published  them 
under  their  own  names.  But  had  I  been  to  make  the 
conjecture,  I  should  rather  have  suspected  that  this 
Pseudo-Dionysius  fetched  his  speculations,  and  good 
part  of  his  expressions  from  Plotinus,  lamblichus,  and 
'the  rest  of  the  later  Platonists.  For  certainly  one  eg^  is 
not  more  like  another,  than  this  man's  divinity  is  like  the 
theology  of  that  school,  especially  as  explained  b)'  the 
philosophers  who  lived  in  the  first  ages  of  Christianity. 
That  our  Dionysius  was  not  the  author  of  the  books  at 
this  day  extant  under  his  name,  I  shall  not  concern  my- 
self to  show.  For  however  it  be  contended  for  by  many 
with  all  imaginable  zeal  and  stiffness,  yet  want  there  not 
those,  and  men  of  note,  even  in  the  Roman  communion, 
who  clearly  disown  and  deny  it ;  as  among  the  reformed 
it  has  been  largely  disproved  by  many,  and  by  none  with 
2'reater  learning  and  industrv  than  Monsieur  Daille,  who 
has  said  whatever  is  necessary,  if  not  more  than  enough 
upon  this  argument :  though  as  to  the  date  of  their  birth 
and  first  appearance,  when  he  thrusts  them  down  to  the 
sixth  century,  he  takes  somewhat  off  from  the  antiquity, 
which  may  with  probability  be  allowed  them. 

13.  Who  was  the  particular  author  of  these  books,  is 
not  easy  to  determine.  Among  the  several  conjectures 
about  this  matter,  none  methinks  deserves  a  fairer  regard, 
then  what  ™  Laurentius  Valla  tells  us  some  learned 
Grreeks  of  his  time  conceived,  that  it  was  ApoUinaris, 
but  whether  father  or  sop,  it  matters  not,  both  being  men 
o[ '  parts,  and  of  the  same  strain  and  humour,  a><|.0T8g<!/  5mw- 
V  v«i  i-  \iym  J^iS'JtTKciMt, "  both  of  them  masters  in  all  the  learn- 
i.Dg  ■  of  the  Greeks,  though  of  the  two  the  son  was  most 


^     \nn(Jt.  in  Act.  Apost.  c.  IT'.  n  Socrat.  H.  Ecp.  1.  3.  c.  46.  p.  160 


THE  LITE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  179 

likely  to  be  the  man.     Certain  it  is,  that  Apollinaris  was 

rgoc  Trxvl-Jitryiv  iUwtu,    5  ^o^-av  \Sixv   ■ra.^i7K<niijctirfjiiv&' ,     aS  "SoZOlTlCn  clC- 

scribes  him,  trained  up  to  all  sorts  of  learning,  and  skill- 
ed in  the  artifices  and  frames  of  words  and  speeches,  and 
*'St.  Basil  says  of  him,  that  being-  endued  with  a  facility  of 
writing  upon  any  argument,  joined  with  a  great  readi- 
ness and  volubility  of  language,  he  filled  the  world  with 
his  books  :  thousrh  even  in  his  theolo^'ic  tracts  he  sou2:ht 
not  to  establish  them  by  scripture  proofs,  but  from  hu- 
man arguments  and  ways  of  reasoning  :  •riio-xi^^ic^ilo  si  to  siy/uu. 
ivrS,  hK  dTTo  IutZ Tiv®'  d}^'  oLTro  TTie^noiA;,  as  "^another  also  says  of  him. 
He  was  born  and  bred  at  Alexandria  (than  which  no 
place  more  famous  for  schools  of  human  learning,  espe- 
cially the  profession  of  the  Platonic  philosophy)  and  af- 
terwards lived  at  Laodicea,  where  he  was  so  intimately 
familiar  with  the  Gentile  philosophers,  that  Theodotus 
bishop  of  the  place  forbade  him  (though  in  vain)  any  lon- 
ger to  keep  company  with  them,  fearing  lest  he  might  be 
perverted  to  paganism ;  as  afterwards  George  his  suc- 
cessor excommunicated  him  for  his  insolent  contempt  in 
not  doing  it.  This  is  said  to  have  given  the  first  occa- 
sion to  his  starting  aside  from  the  orthodox  doctrines  of 
the  church.  For  resenting  it  as  an  high  affront,  and  be- 
ing T«  svgsiV  tS  C'^<ptTiKZ  hoya  ^4lm^  ^  prompted  with  a  bold 
conceit  of  his  sophistical  wit,  and  subtle  ways  of  reason- 
ing, he  began  to  innovate  in  matters  of  doctrine,  and  set 
up  a  sect  after  his  own  name.  And  certainly  whoever 
thoroughly  considers  Apollinaris's  principles^  as  they 
are  represented  by  '  Socrates,  '  Sozomen,  "  Theodoret, 
'  Basil,,  and*  Epiphanius,  will  find  man}^  of  them  to  have 
a  great  affinity  with  the  Platonic  notions,  and  some  of 
them  not  un-akin  to  those  in  Dionysius's  books,  and  that 
as  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  they  were  right  in  the 
main,  which  ^Socrates  particularly  tells  us  the  Apollinari- 


o  H.  Eccl.  1.  5.  c.  18.  p.  623.  Socr.  loc.  citat. 

p  Ep.  LXXIV.  p.  125.  Tom.  2.  q  Leor.t.  de  Sect.  Act.  IV.  p.  446. 

r  Socrat.  ib.  p.  161.  s  Socrat.  loc.  citat. 

t  Sozom.  1.  6.  c.  27.  p.  676.  ex  Ep.  Nazian.  de  Nectitr. 

u  Theodor.  1.  5.  c.  3.  p.  200.  v  Basil,  ubi  supr. 

w  Epiph.  Hjcres.  77.  p.  421.  x  Ibid  vld.  Leunt.  loc.  citat.       ' 


180  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

ans  confessed  to  be  consubstantial.  To  which  I  add,  what 
a  learned  ^  man  of  our  own  has  observed  upon  this  argu- 
ment, that  i\pollinaris  and  his  followers  were  guilty  of 
forging  ecclesiasticai  writings,  which  they  fastened  upon 
Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  Athanasius,  and  Pope  Julius, 
as  ^  Leontius  particularly  proves  at  large.  So  that  they 
might  be  probably  enough  forged  in  the  school  of  Apol- 
linaris,  either  by  himself,  or  some  of  his  disciples. 

14.  It  makes  the  conjecture  look  yet  more  favourable, 
that  there  was  one  *  Diony  sius,  a  friend  probably  of  Apol- 
linaris,  to  vvhorn  he  is  said  to  have  written  that  famous 
epistle  that  went  under  the  name  of  Pope  Julius:   and 
then  among  his  own  scholars  he  had  a  Timotheus  (con- 
demned together  with  his  master  by  ^  Damasus,  and  the 
synod  irt  Rome)  so  that  they  might  easily  enough  take 
occasion  from  their  own  to  vent  their  conceptions  under 
the  more  venerable  names  of  those  ancient  and  apostolic 
persons.     Or,  which  is  more  probable,  Apollinaris  him- 
self so  well  versed  in  the  arts  of  counterfeiting,  might 
from  them  take  the  hint  to  compose  and  publish  them 
under  the  name  of  the  ancient  Dionysius.     Nor  indeed 
could  he  likely  pitch  upon  a  name  more  favourable  and 
agreeable  to  his  purpose,  a  man  born  in  the  very  centre 
of  learning  and  eloquence,  and  who  might  easily  be  sup- 
posed to  be  bred  up  in  all  the  institutions  of  philosophy, 
and  in  a  peculiar  manner  acquainted  with  the  writings 
and  theorems  of  Plato  and  his  followers,  so  famous,  so 
generally  entertained  in  that  place.     And  there  will  be 
the  more  reason  to  believe  it  still,  when  we  consider, 
that "  Apollinaris  reduced  the  gospels  and  the  writings  of 
the  apostles  into  the  form  of  dialogues  in  imitation  of 
Plato  among  the  Greeks.     And  then  for  the  style,  which 
is  very  lofty  and  affected,  we  noted  before  how  peculiarly 
qualified    Apollinaris   was   with   a   quick   invention  of 
words,  and  a  sophistical  way  of  speech,  and  the  ^histo- 

7  Dr.  Stilliiigfl.  Ms  answer  to  Cress.  Apolog'.  c.  2.  f  IT.  p.  133. 

'/.  Dc  Sect.  Act   VIII.  p.  .527. 

a  Vid.  Coil;it.  Cnthol.  cum  Severian.  Cone.  Tom.  4.  col.  1767. 

b  Theod.  H.  Ecc.  1.  5.  c.  9,  10.  p.  21J.  c  S(.<t:i-ul,  1.  3.  c.  It),  p,  18?. 

d  Sozom.  I.  6.  c.  2J.  p.  (57'J. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  181 

rian  observes  that  the  great  instrument  by  which  he  set 
on  foot  his  heresy,  and  wherein  he  had  a  singular  talent, 
was  Tf^vx  M>*».  artificial  schemes  of  words,  and  subtle  ways 
to  express  himself.  Besides  he  was  an  incomparable 
poet"  (not  only  the  father  but  the  son)  to  the  study  where- 
of he  peculiarly  addicted  himself,  and  wrote  poems  t6 
the  imitation,  and  the  envy  of  the  best  among  the  hea- 
thens. In  imitation  of  Homer  he  wrote  heroic  poems  of 
the  history  of  the  Old  Testament  till  the  reign  of  Saul, 
comedies  after  the  manner  of  Menander,  tragedies  in 
imitation  of  Euripides,  and  odes  in  imitation  of  Pindar  : 
he  composed  divine  hymns,^  that  were  publicly  sung  in 
the  churches  of  his  separation,  and  songs  which  men  sung 
both  in  their  feasts  and  at  their  trades,  and  even  women 
at  the  distaff.  By  this  means  he  was  admirably  prepared 
for  lofty  and  poetic  strains,  and  might  be  easily  tempted, 
especially  the  matter  admitting  it,  to  give  way  to  a  wan- 
ton and  luxuriant  fancy  in  the  choice,  composition,  and 
use  of  words.  And  certainly  never  was  there  a  stranger 
heap  (xf^tav  TToxurrxK^u,,  Maximus  himself  calls  it)  of  sublime 
affected  bombast,  and  poetic  phrases,  than  is  to  be  met 
with  in  these  books  attributed  to  St.  Denys. 

15.  If  it  shall  be  inquired  why  a  man  should  after  so" 
much  pains  choose  to  publish  his  labours  rather  under 
another  man's  name  than  his  own,  there  needs  no  other 
answer  than  that  this  has  been  an  old  trade,  which  some 
men  have  taken  up,  either  because  it  was  their  humour 
to  lay  their  own  children  at  other  men's  doors,  or  to  de- 
cline the  censure  which  the  notions  they  published  were 
likely  to  expose  them  to,  or  principally  to  conciliate  the 
greater  esteem  and  value  for  them,  by  thrusting  them 
forth  under  the  name  of  those  for  whom  the  world  has  a 
just  regard  and  veneration.  As  for  Monsieur  Dailles's 
conjecture,^  that  the  reason  why  several  learned  volumes 
were  written  and  fastened  upon  the  fathers  of  the  ancient 
church,  was  to  vindicate  them  from  that  common  impu- 
tation of  the  Gentiles,   who  were  wont  to  charge  the 

e  Sozom.  1.  5.  c.  13  p.  6:3.  fid.  1.  6.  q.  25.  n.  Gri.  e  De  Scnnt. 

Dionys.  c.  o9.  p.  2?1. 


182  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 

Christians  for  being  a  rude  and  illiterate  generation, 
whose  books  were  stuffed  with  nothing  but  plain  simple 
doctrines,  and  who  were  strangers  to  all  kind  of  learning 
and  eloquence ;  that  to  obviate  this  objection,  several 
took  upon  them  to  compose  books  full  of  learning  and 
philosophy,  which  they  published  under  the  names  of  the 
iirst  preachers  and  propagators  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
that  this  particularly  was  the  case  of  the  Recognitions 
ascribed  to  Clemens,  and  the  writings  attributed  to  Dio- 
nysius  :  The  first  I  grant  very  iikely  and  rational,  the 
Recognitions  being  probably  written  about  the  second 
century,  when  (as  appears  from  Celsus's  book  against 
the  Christians)  this  objection  was  most  rife,  and  when 
few  learned  discourses  had  been  published  by  them  : 
But  can  by  no  means  allow  it  as  to  the  second,  Dionysi- 
us's  works  being  written  long  after  the  learning  and  elo- 
quence of  the  Christians  had  sufficiently  approved  itself 
to  the  world,  to  the  shame  and  conviction,  the  envy  and 
admiration  of  its  greatest  enemies.  And  there  was  far 
less  need  of  them  for  this  purpose,  if  it  be  true  what 
Daille  himself  so  confidently  asserts,  and  so  earnestly 
contends  for,  that  they  were  not  written  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixth  century,  about  the  year  520,  when 
there  were  few  learned  Gentiles  left  to  make  this  objec- 
tion, heathenism  being  almost  wholly  banished  out  of  the 
civilized  world. 

16.  But  whoever  was  their  genuine  parent,  or  upon 
what  account  soever  he  wrote  them,  it  is  plain  that  he 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  mystical  and  unintelligible  divi- 
nity among  Christians,  and  that  hence  proceeded  all 
those  wild  Rosicrucean  notions,  which  some  men  are  so 
fond  of,  and  the  life  and  practice  whereof  they  cry  up  as 
the  very  soul  and  perfection  of  the  Christian  state.  And 
that  this  author  does  immediately  minister  to  this  design, 
let  the  reader  judge  by  one  instance,  and  I  assure  him 
it  is  none  of  the  most  obscure  and  intricate  passages  in 
these  books.  I  have  set  it  down  in  its  own  language  as 
well  as  ours,  not  being  confident  of  my  own  A'crsion 
(though  expressed  word  for  word)  for  I  pretend  to  no 
great  faculty  in  translating  what  I  do  not  understand. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS.  183 

Thus  then  he  discourses  concerning  ll"^  knowledge  of 
God.     "  'God,"  saith  he,  "  is  known  in  all  things,  and 
without  all  things  :  he  is  known  by  knowledge,  and  by 
ignorance  :  there  is  both  a  cogitation  of  him,  and  a  word, 
and  a  science,  and  a  touch,  and  a  sense,  and  an  opinion, 
and  an  imagination,  and  a  name,   and  all  other  things  ; 
and  yet  he  is  neither   thought,    nor  spoken,  nor  named. 
He  is  not  any  thing  of  those   things  that  are,  nor  is  he 
known  in  any  of  the  things  that  are  ;  he  is  both  all  things 
in  all,  and  nothing  in  nothing  ;   out  of  all  things  he  is 
known  to  all,  and  out  of  nothing  to  nothing.     These  are 
the  things  which  we  rightly  discourse  concerning  God. 
And  this  again  is  the  most  divine  knowledge  of  God,  that 
which  is  known  by  ignorance,   according  to  the  union 
that  is  above  understanding;  when  the  mind  getting  at  a 
distance  from  all  things  that  are,  and  having  dismissed  it- 
self,   is  united  to  those   super-illustrious   beams,  from 
whence  and  where  it  is  enlightened  in  the  unfathomable 
depth  of  wisdom."     More  of  this  and  the  like  stuff  is 
plentifully  scattered  up  and  down  these  books.     And  if 
this  be  not  mystical  and  profound  enough,  I  know  not 
what  is  ;  and  which  certainly  any  man  but  one  well  ver- 
sed in  this  sort  of  theology,  would  look  upon  as  a  strange 
jargon  of  nonsense  and  contradiction.     And  yet  this  is 
the  height  of  devotion  and  piety,   which  some  men  ear- 
nestly press  after,  and  wherein  they  glory.     As  if  a  man 
could  not  truly  understand  the  mysteries  of  religion,  till 
he  had  resigned  his  reason,  nor  be  a  Christian,  without 
first  becoming  an  enthusiast,  nor  be  able  to  speak  sense, 
unless  in  a  language  which  none  can  understand. 


■T/i 

Rat/   KK  «ri  T«  T«v  a/Tmv,  Kdi  it  rivl  t«v  ov-av  ■yivxiHTXi.     Ka;  h  Trari  Trivra  ig^t,    i.  \^ 

THV^J-nrfg  V'.uv  tius-tv  OT-av  o  vcvc  tHi  ovTav  TrivTm  stTrcs-*?,  iTruTi.  y,  iavT-.v  d^u;,  ht^b'^ 
t®".    Dionys.  de  Divin.  Nomin.  cap,  7.  p.  238.  " 


184 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS. 


WRITINGS  FALSELY  ATTRIBUTED   TO  HIM. 


De  CoelestiHierarchia.  Lib.  1.  Ad  Sosipatrum.  Epistola 

De  Divinis  Nominibus.         1.  Ad  Polycarpum. 

De  Ecclesiastica  Hierarchia.  1.  Ad  Demophilum. 

De  Mystica  Theologia,         1.  Ad  Titum. 

Epistolee  ad  Caium.  4.  Ad  Joannem  Evangelistam. 

Ad  Dorotheum.  J.  Ad  Apollophanem. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS, 

BISHOP  OF  ROME. 


I'lis  birth-place.  His  parents,  kindred,  education,  and  conversion  to 
Christianity  noted  out  of  the  books  extant  under  his  nanje.  His  relation 
to  the  imperial  family  showed  to  be  a  mistake.  His  l)eing  made  bishop 
of  Rome.  The  great  confusion  about  the  first  bishops  of  that  see.  A 
probable  account  endeavoured  concerning  the  order  of  St.  Clemens's 
succession,  and  the  reconciling  it  with  the  times  of  the  other  bishops. 
What  accoy  it  given  of  him  in  the  ancient  Epistle  to  St.  James.  Cle- 
mens his  apjjoiuting  notaries  to  write  the  acts  of  the  Martyrs,  and  des- 
patching messengers  to  propagate  the  gospel.  The  schism  in  the 
church  of  Corinth  ;  and  Clemens's  Epistle  to  that  church.  An  inquiry 
into  the  time  when  that  Epistle  was  written.  The  persecution  under 
Trajan.  His  proceeding  against  the  Heterix.  A  short  relation  of  St. 
Clemens's  troubles  out  of  Simeon  Metaphrastes.  His  banishment  to 
Cherson.  Damnatio  ad  Metalla,  what.  The  great  success  of  his  mi- 
nistry in  the  place  of  his  exile.  St.  Clemens's  martyrdom,  and  the  kind 
of  it.  The  annivers.ai'y  miracle  reported  on  the  day  of  his  solemnity. 
The  time  of  his  martyrdom.  His  genuine  writings.  His  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians:  the  commendations  given  of  it  by  the  ancients.  Its  style 
and  character.  The  great  modesty  and  humility  that  appears  in  it. 
The  fragment  of  his  second  Epistle.  Suppositious  writings.  The  re- 
cognitions ;  their  several  titles,  and  different  editions.  Their  antiqui- 
ty, what.  A  conjecture  concerning  the  author  of  them.  The  censures 
of  the  ancients  concerning  the  corrupting  of  them,  considered.  The 
Epistle  to  St.  James. 

1.  IT  makes  not  a  little  for  the  honour  of  this  venera- 
ble apostolical  man  (for  of  him  all  antiquity  understands 
it)  that  he  was  fellow-labourer  with  St.  Paul,  and  one  of 
those  whose  names  were  written  in  the  book  of  life.  He 
was  born  at  Rome,  upon  mount  Caslius,  as,  besides 
others,  the  ^  Pontifical  under  the  name  of  Damasus,  in- 

a  Vit.  Clement,  concil.  Tom.  1.  col  74. 

A  a 


186  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

forms  us.  His  father's  name  was  Faustinus,  but  who  he 
was  and  what  his  profession  and  course  of  life  is  not  re- 
corded. Indeed  in  the  book  of  the  Recognitions,  and  the 
r^  K^tifxiviiu  (mentioned  by  the  ancients,  and  lately  publish- 
ed) we  have  more  particular  accounts  concerning  him : 
books  which  however  falsely  attributed  to  St.  Clemens, 
and  liable  in  some  cases  to  just  exception,  yet,  being  of 
great  antiquity  in  the  church,  written  not  long  after  the 
Apostolic  age  (as  we  shall  show  hereafter)  we  shall  thence 
derive  some  few  notices  to  our  purpose,  though  we  can- 
not absolutely  engage  for  the  certainty  of  them.  There 
we  find  St.  Clemens  brought  in,  giving  this  account  of 
himself. 

2.  He  ''  was  descended  of  a  noble  race,  sprung  from 
the  family  of  the  Caesars,  his  father  Faustinianus,  or 
Faustus,  being  near  akin  to  the  emperor  (I  suppose  Ti- 
berius)  and  educated  together  with  him,  and  by  his  pro- 
curement matched  with  Mattidia,  a  woman  of  a  prime  fa- 
mily in  Rome.  He  was  the  youngest  of  three  sons,  his 
two  eider  brothers  being  Faustinus  and  Faustus,  who  af- 
ter changed  their  names  for  Nicetas  and  Aquila.  His 
mother,  a  woman  it  seems  of  exquisite  beauty,  was  by 
her  husband's  own  brother  strongly  solicited  to  unchaste 
embraces.  To  avoid  whose  troublesome  importunities, 
and  yet  loath  to  reveal  it  to  her  husband,  lest  it  should 
break  out  to  the  disturbance  and  dishonour  of  their  fami- 
ly, she  found  out  this  expedient :  she  pretended  to  her 
husband  that  she  was  warned  in  a  dream  together  with 
her  two  eldest  sons  to  depart  for  some  time  from  Rome. 
He  accordingly  sent  them  to  reside  at  Athens,  for  the 
greater  conveniency  of  their  education.  But  hearing 
nothing  of  them,  though  he  sent  messengers  on  purpose 
every  year,  he  resolved  at  last  to  go  himself  in  pursuit  of 
them  ;  which  he  did,  leaving  his  youngest  son,  then 
twelve  years  of  age,  at  home,  under  the  care  of  tutors  and 
guardianjj.     *"  St.  Clemens  grew  up  in  all  manly  studies, 

h  Recog^n.  1.  7-  n.  8.  p.  4/6.  Clem.  Homil.  12.  n.  8.  p.  678.  Epitom.  n.  76.  p 
781.  Edit.  Pans. 
c  Recogn.  1. 1  n.  1.  p.  399.  CI.  Horn.  1.  p.  516.  Epist.  p.  749. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  187 

and  virtuous  actions,  till  falling  under  some  great  dissa- 
tisfactions of  mind  concerning  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  and  the  state  of  the  other  life,  he  applied  himself  to 
search  more  narrowly   into  the  nature  and  the  truth  of 
things.     After  having  baffled  all  his  own  notions,  he  be- 
took himself  to  the  schools  of  the  philosophers,  where  he 
met  with  nothing  but  fierce  contentions,  endless  disputes, 
sophistical  and  uncertain  arts  of  reasoning  ;  thence  he  re- 
solved to  consult  the  Egyptian  Hierophantas,  and  to  see 
if  he  could  meet  with  any  who  by  arts  of  magic  was  able 
to  fetch  back  one  of  those  who  were  departed  to  the  invi- 
sible world,  the  very  sight  of  whom  might  satisfy  his  cu- 
rious inquiries  about  this  matter.     While  he  was  under 
this  suspense,  he  heard  of  the  Son  of  God  appearing  in 
the  world,  and  the  excellent  doctrines  he  had  published 
in  Judea,  wherein  he  was  ftirther  instructed  by  the  minis- 
try of  St.  Barnabas,  who  came  to  Rome.     Him  he  fol- 
lowed first  to  Alexandria,  and  thence  after  a  little  time  to 
Jtidea.     Arriving  at  Cssaiea  he  met  with  St.  Peter,  by 
whom  he  was  instructed  and  baptized,  whose  compa- 
nion and  disciple  he  continued  for  a  great  part  of  his  life. 
3.   This  is  the  sum  of  what  I  thought  good  to  borrow 
from  those  ancient  writings.     As  for  his  relations,  Vvhat 
various  misadventures  his  father  and  mother,  and  his  two 
brothers  severally  met  with,  by  what  strange  accidents 
they  all  afterwards  met  together,  w^re  converted  and  bap- 
tized into  the  Christian  faith,  I  omit,  partly  as  less  proper 
to  my  purpose,  partly  because  it  looks  more  like  a  dra- 
matic scene  of  fancy,  than  a  true  and  real  history.     As  to 
that  part  of  the  account  of  his  being  related  to  the  imperial 
family,  though  it  be  m^ore  than  once  and  again  confident- 
ly asserted  by  ^  ISicephorus  (who  transcribes  a  good  part 
of  the  story)  and  by  "  others  before  him,  yet  I  cannot  but 
behold  it  as  an  evident  mistake,  arising  from  no  other 
fountain  than  the  story  of  Flavins  Clemens,  the  consul, 
who  was  cousin-german  to  the  emperor  Domitian,  and 
his  wife   Flavia  Domitilla  near  akin  also  to   the  emoe- 

± 

a  H.  Eccl.  1.  2.  c.  35.  p.  191.  1.  3.  c.  2.  et  18.  p.  24r. 

e  Eucher.  Lui^d.  ad  Valerian,  de  contempt.  Mund.  Anomm.  de  vit.  Pcfr.  et 
Paul.  ap.  P.  Jun.  not.  in  Clem.  Ep.  ad  Corinth. 


188  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

ror  :  concerning  whose  conversion  to,  and  martyrdom 
for  the  faith  of  Christ,  we  have  ^elsewhere  given  an  ac- 
count from  the  writers  of  those  times.  Probable  it  is,  that 
St.  Clemens  for  the  main  attended  St.  Peter's  motions, 
and  came  with  hijn  to  Rome,  where  he  had  at  last  the  go- 
vernment of  that  church  committed  to  him.  ^  Dorotheus 
tells  us,  that  he  was  the  first  of  the  Gentiles  that  em- 
braced the  Christian  faith,  and  that  he  was  first  made 
bishop  of  Sardica,  a  city  in  Thrace,  afterwards  called 
Triaditza,  and  then  of  Rome.  But  herein  1  think  he 
stands  alone,  I  am  sure  has  none  of  the  ancients  to  join 
with  him  ;  unless  he  understands  it  of  another  Clemens, 
whom  the  ^  Chronicon  Alexandrinum  also  makes  one  of 
the  LXX  disciples,  but  withal  seems  to  confound  with 
ours.  That  he  was  bishop  of  Rome,  there  is  an  unani- 
mous and  unquestionable  agreement  of  all  ancient  wri- 
ters, though  they  strangely  vary  about  the  place  and  order 
of  his  coming  to  it.  The  writers  of  the  Roman  church, 
how  great  words  soever  they  speak  of  the  constant  and 
uninterrupted  succession  of  St.  Peter's  chair,  are  yet  in- 
volved in  an  inextricable  labryinth  about  the  succession 
of  the  four  first  bishops  of  that  See,  scarce  two  of  them 
of  any  note  bringing  in  the  same  account.  I  shall  not  at- 
tempt to  accommodate  the  difference  between  the  several 
schemes  that  are  given  in,  but  only  propose  what  I  con- 
ceive most  likely  and  probable. 

4.  Evident  it  is  both  from '  Lenaeus  and  ^  Epiphanius, 
as  also  before  them  from  ^  Caius  an  ancient  writer,  and 
from  ™  Dionysius  bishop  of  Corinth,  that  Peter  and  Paul 
jointly  laid  the  foundations  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and 
are  therefore  equally  styled  bishops  of  it,  the  one  as  apos- 
tle of  the  Gentiles  (as  we  may  probably  suppose)  taking 
care  of  the  Gentile  Christians,  while  the  other  as  the 
apostle  of  the  circumcision,  applied  himself  to  the  Jewish 

f  Primit.  Chnst.  p.  1.  ch.  iii. 

g  Synops.  de  vit.  App.  in  Bibl.  PP.  Tom.  iii.  p.  150.  col.  1. 

h  Chron.  Alex   p.  508.  i  Adv.  Hiercs  1.  .3.c.3.p.  232. 

k  Epipti.  Hxixs.  XXVII.  p.51.vid.  Ham.  Dia.scit.  V.c.  l.p.  256- 

1  C:ii.  adv.  Procul.  kX 

m  Dionvs.  Epist,  ad  Rom.  apvid  Euseb.  1.  2.  c  25-  p.  63 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  189 

converts  at  Rome.  For  we  cannot  imagine,  that  there 
being  such  chronical  and  inveterate  prejudices  between 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  especially  in  matters  of  religion,  they 
should  be  suddenly  laid  aside,  and  both  enter-common 
in  one  public  society.  We  know  that  in  the  church  of 
Jerusalem  till  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  none  were 
admitted  but  Jewish  converts  :  and  so  it  might  be  at  first 
at  Rome,  where  infinite  numbers  of  Jews  then  resided, 
they  might  keep  themselves  for  some  time  in  distinct  as- 
semblies, the  one  under  St.  Paul,  the  other  under  Peter, 
And  some  foundation  for  such  a  conjecture  there  seems 
to  be  even  in  the  apostolic  history,  where  St.  Luke  tells  us, 
that  St.  Paul  at  his  first  coming  to  Rome,  being  rejected 
by  the  Jews,  turned  to  the  Gentiles,  declaring  to  them  the 
salvation  of  God^  who  gladly  heard  and  entertained  it, 
and  that  he  continued  thus  preaching  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  receiving  all  that  came  in  unto  him  for  txvo  years 
together  J"  This  I  look  upon  as  the  first  settled  founda- 
tion of  a  Gentile  church  at  Rome,  the  further  care  and 
presidency  whereof  St.  Paul  might  devolve  upon  Linus 
(whom  the  interpolated  Ignatius  makes  his  deacon  or 
minister)  as  St.  Peter  having  established  a  church  of 
Jewish  converts  might  turn  it  over  to  St.  Clemens,  of 
whom  **  Tertullian  expressly  says,  that  Peter  ordained 
him  bishop  of  Rome.  Accordingly  the  compiler  of  the  ^ 
apostolic  constitutions  makes  Linus  to  be  ordained  bishop 
of  Rome  by  St.  Paul,  and  Clemens  by  St.  Peter.  He 
says,  indeed,  that  Linus  was  the  first,  and  so  he  might 
very  well  be,  seeing  St.  Paul  (whatever  the  modern 
writers  of  that  church  say  to  the  contrary)  was  some 
considerable  time  at  Rome,  before  St.  Peter  came 
hither.  Linus  dying,  was  probably  succeeded  by  Cletus 
or  Anacletus  (for  the  Greeks,  and  doubtless  most  truly, 
generally  make  him  the  same  person)  in  his  distinct  ca- 
pacity. At  which  time  Clemens,  whom  St.  Peter  had 
ordained  to  be  his  successor,  continued  to  act  as  presi- 
dent over  the  church  of  Jewish  converts  :   and  thus  things 

n  Act.  xxviii.  23,  24,  25,  28,  39,31. 

o  De  Pi-jescript.  Hxiet.  c.  33.  p.  213.  p  Lib.  7.  c.  47.  col.  451. 


190  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

remained  till  the  death  of  Cletus,  when  the  difference  be- 
tween Jew  and  Gentile  being  quite  worn  off,  the  entire 
presidency  and  government  of  the  whole  church  of  Rome 
might  devolve  upon  St.  Clemens  as  the  surviver  ;  and 
from  this  period  of  time,  the  years  of  his  episcopacy,  ac- 
cording to  the  common  computation,  are  to  begin  their 
date  By  this  account,  not  only  that  of  ^  Optatus  and 
the  '  Bucherian  catalogue  may  be  true,  who  make  Cle- 
mens to  follow  Linus,  but  also  that  of  Baronius  and  ma- 
ny of  the  ancients,  who  make  both  Linus  and  Cletus  to 
go  before  him,  as  we  can  allow  they  did  as  bishops  and 
pastors  of  the  Gentile  church.  As  for  a  more  distinct 
and  particular  account  of  the  times,  I  thus  compute 
them  :  Peter  and  Paul  suffered  martyrdom  in  the  Nero- 
nian  persecution  (as  we  have  elsewhere  probably  showed) 
Ann.  LXV.  After  which  Linus  sat  twelve  years,  four 
months,  and  twelve  days  :  Cletus  twelve  years,  one  (but 
as  Baronius,  seven)  months,  and  eleven  days,  which  be- 
tween them  make  twentv-five  vears,  and  extend  to  Ann. 
Chr.  XC.  after  which  if  we  add  the  nine  years,  eleven 
months  and  twelve  days,  wherein  Clemens  sat  sole 
bishop  over  that  whole  church,  they  fall  in  exactly  with 
the  third  year  of  Trajan,  the  time  assigned  for  his  mar- 
tyrdom, by  Eusebius,  Hierom,  Damasus,  and  many 
others.  Or  if  with  Petavius,  Kicciolus,  and  some  others, 
we  assign  the  martyrdom  of  Peter  and  Paul,  Ann.  67, 
two  years  later,  the  computation  will  still  run  more 
smooth  and  easy,  and  there  will  be  time  enough  to  be  al- 
lowed for  the  odd  months  and  days  assigned  by  the  dif- 
ferent accounts,  and  to  make  the  years  of  their  ponificate 
complete  and  full.  Nor  can  I  think  of  an}'  way,  consi- 
dering the  great  intricacy  and  perplexity  of  the  thing, 
that  can  bid  fairer  for  an  easy  solution  of  this  matter. 
For  granting  Clemens  to  have  been  ordained  by  St.  Peter 
for  his  successor,  (as  several  of  the  ancients  expressly  af- 
iirm)  and  yet  withal  (what  is  evident  enough)  that  he 
died  not  till  Ann.  Chr.  C.  Traj.  IIL  it  Avill  be  very  diffi- 

q  I)e  Schism,  Donat  lib.  2.  p.  38. 

r  A  Buclier.  edit,  comment,  in  Vict,  Can.  Pasch.  c-  \S.  p.  269. 


.     THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  191 

cult  to  find  any  way  so  proper  to  reconcile  it.  As  for 
that  fancy  of  'Epiphanius,  that  Clemens  might  receive 
imposition  of  hands  from  St.  Peter,  but  refused  the  ac- 
tual exercise  of  the  episcopal  office,  so  long  as  Linus  and 
Cletus  lived  :  he  only  proposes  it  as  a  conjecture,  found- 
ed merely  upon  a  mistaken  passage  of  Clemens  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Corinthian^,  and  confesses  it  is  a  thing 
wherein  he  dare  not  be  positive,  not  being  confident 
whether  it  were  so  or  no. 

5.  Might  the  ancient  *epistle  written  to  St.  James  the 
brother  of  our  Lord,  under  the  name  of  our  St.  Clemens, 
be  admitted  as  a  competent  evidence,  there  we  find  not 
only  that  Clemens  was  constituted  bishop  by  St.  Peter, 
but  with  what  formality  the  whole  affair  was  transacted. 
It  tells  us  that  the  apostle,  sensible  of  his  approaching  dis- 
solution,  presented  Clemens  before  the  church  as  a  fit 
person  to  be  his  successor  ;  the  good  man  with  all  ima- 
ginable modesty  declined  the  honour,  which  St.  Peter, 
in  a  long  discourse  urged  upon  him,  and  set  out  at  large 
the  particular  duties  both  of  ministers  in  their  respective 
orders  and  capacities,  as  also  of  the  people  ;  which  done, 
he   laid  his  hands  upon  him  and  compelled  him  to  take 
his  seat.     How  he   administered  this  great  but  difficult 
province,  the   ecclesiastical  records  give  us  very  little 
account.    The  author  of  the  "Pontifical,  that  fathers  him- 
self upon  pope  Damasus,  tells  us,  that  he  divided  Rome 
into  seven  regions,  in  each  of  which  he  appointed  a  no- 
tary, who  should  diligently   inquire  after  all  the  martvrs 
that  suffered  within  his  division,  and  faithfully  record  the 
acts  of  their  martyrdom.    I  confess  the  credit  of  this  au- 
thor is  not  good  enough  absolutely  to  rely  upon  his  sin- 
gle testimony  in  matters  so  remote  and  distant:  though 
we  are  otherwise  sufficiently  assured,  that  the  custom  of 
notaries  taking  the  speeches,  acts,  and  sufferings  of  the 
martyrs    did  obtain    in   the  early  ages  of  the  church. 
Besides  this,  we  are  told  by  others  that  he  despatched 

s  Contr.  Carpocrat  Hseres.  xxvii.  p.  51.  vid.  Clem.  Epist.  ad  Corinth,  p.  69. 
t  Extat  Grxce  &  Lat.  inter  PP.  Apost.  a  Coteler.  edit.  u  Lib.  Pontif.  in 

vlt.  Clem.  Cone.  T.  1.  col.  74. 


192  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.   CLEMENS. 

away  several  persons  to  preach  and  propagate  the  Chris- 
tian religion  in  those  countries,  whither  the  sound  of  the 
gospel  had  not  yet  arrived.     Nor  did  he  only  concern 
himself  to  propagate  Christianity,   where  it  wanted,   but 
to  preserve  the  peace  of  those  churches  where  it  was  al- 
ready planted."  For  an  unhappy  schism  having  broken  out 
in  the  church  of  Corinth,  they  sent  to  Rome  to  require  his 
advice  and  assistance  in  it,  who  in  the  name  of  the  church, 
whereof  he  was  governor,  wrote  back  an  incomparable 
epistle  to  them,  to  compose  and  quell  ///^iv^  *v5(r/ovrctw,  as 
^"he  calls  it,  tliat  impious  and  abominable  sedition  that  was 
arisen  amongst  them.     And  indeed  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  more  intimate  and  friendly  intercourse  between 
these  two   churches  in  these  times,  than  between  any 
other   mentioned  in  the    writings  of  the  church.     The 
exact  time  of  writing  this  epistle  is  not  known,  the  date 
of  it  not  being  certainly  determinable  by  any  notices  of 
antiquity,   or  any  intimations  in  the  epistle  itself.     The 
conjecture  that  has  obtained  with  some  of  most  note  and 
learning  is,  that  it  was  written  before  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,   while  the   temple  and  the  Levitical  minis- 
tration were  yet  standing.     Which  they  collect,  I  sup- 
pose, from  a  "passage,   where  he  speaks  of  them  in  the 
present  tense      But  whoever  impartially  considers  the 
place,  will  find  no  necessary  foundation  for  such  an  in- 
ference, and  that  St.  Clemens's  design  was  only  to  illus- 
trate his  argument,  and  to  show  the  reasonableness  of  ob- 
serving those  particular  stations  and   ministries  which 
God  has  appointed  us,  by  alluding  to  the  ordinances  of 
the  Mosaic  institution.     To  me  it  seems  most  probable 
to  have  been  written  a  little  after  the  persecution  under 
Domitian,  and  probably  not  long  before  Clemens's  exile. 
For  excusing  the  no  sooner  answering  the  letters  of  the 
church  of  Corinth,  he  ^'tells  them  it  was  <rw  >6i/o/^sv*c  «/^7v  Qjix- 
<B->gar  5  ■7rie^i7f\a,7U',,  by  rcasou  of  those  calamities  and  sad  acci- 
dents that  had  happened  to  them.     Now  plain  it  is,  that 
no  persecution  had  been  raised  against  the  Christians, 

V  HcEjesip.  np.  Euseb.  1.  3.  c  16.  p.  38.       w  Epist.  ad  Corinth,  p.  2.      x  Ibid, 
pag-.  53.         y  Ib.pu;^.  1. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  193 

especially  at  Rome,  from  the  time  of  Nero  till  Domitian. 
As  for  Mr.  Young's  conjecture  from  this  place,  that  it 
was  written  in  the  time  of  his  banishment ;  he  forgot  to 
consider  that  the  epistle  was  written  not  in  Clemens's 
own  name,  but  in  the  person  of  the  church  ot  Rome.  A 
circumstance  that  renders  the  place  incapable  of  being 
particularly  applied  to  him. 

6.  By  a  firm  patience  and  a  prudent  care  he  weathered 
out  the  stormy  and  troublesome  times  of  Domitian,  and 
the  short  but  peaceable  reign  of  Nerva.  When  alas  the 
clouds  returned  after  rain^  and  began  to  thicken  into  a 
blacker  storm  in  the  time  of  Trajan,  an  excellent  prince 
indeed,  of  so  sweet  and  plausible  a  disposition,  of  so  mild 
and  inoft'ensive  a  conversation,  that  it  was  ever  after  a 
part  of  their  solemn  acclamation  at  the  choice  of  a  new 
elected  emperor,  MELIOR  TRAJANO,"  better  than 
Trajan.  But  withal  he  was  zealous  for  his  religion,  and 
upon  that  account  a  severe  enemy  to  the  Christians. 
Among  several  laws  enacted  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
he  published  one  (  if  "Baronius,  which  I  much  question, 
conjecture  the  time  aright,  for  ^Pliny's  epistle,  upon 
which  he  seems  to  ground  it,  was  probably  written  at 
least  nine  or  ten  years  after)  whereby  he  forbad  the  he- 
terice,  the  societies  or  colleges  erected  up  and  down  the 
Roman  empire,  Avhereat  men  were  wont  to  meet,  and  li- 
berally feast  under  a  pretence  of  miore  convenient  des- 
patch of  business,  and  the  maintenance  of  mutual  love 
and  friendship  ;  which  yet  the  Roman  state  beheld  with  a 
jealous  eye,  as  fit  nurseries  for  treason  and  sedition.  Un- 
der the  notion  of  these  unlawful  combinations,  the  Chris- 
tian assemblies  w  ere  looked  upon  by  their  enemies ;  for 
finding  them  confederated  under  one  common  president, 
and  constantly  meeting  at  their  solemn  love-feasts,  and 
especially  being  of  a  way  of  worship  different  from  the 
religion  of  the  empire,  they  thought  they  might  se- 
curely proceed  against  them  as  illegal  societies,  and  con- 
temners of  the  imperial  constitution,   wherein   St.  Cle- 


zEutrop.  H.  Rom.  I.  8.  non  longe  ab  initio.         a  Ad.  An^.  TOO.  n.  viii   Tom 
b  Fpist.  9r.  1.  in. 


194  IHE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

mens,  as  head  of  the  society  at  Rome,  was  sure  to  bear 
the  deepest  share.  And  indeed  it  was  no  more  than  what 
himself  had  long  expected,  as  appears  from  his  letter  to 
the  Corinthians ;  where  having  spoken  of  the  torments 
and  sufferings  which  the  holy  apostles  had  undergone,  he 
tells  them,*"  that  he  looked  upon  himself  and  his  people  as 
h  du-n^  TiS  a-KJifxfxait,  sct  to  ruu  the  same  race,  ijo  oLtI^  i^fjuv  'lymWi- 
Kurui,  and  that  the  same  fight  and  conflict  was  laid  up  for 
them. 

7.  Simeon  the  metaphrast  in  the  account  of  his  ^  mar- 
tyrdom (much  what  the  same  with  that  life  of  St.  Cle- 
mens, said  to  be  written  by  an  uncertain  author,  publish- 
ed long  since  by  Lazius  at  the  end  of  Abdias  Babylonius) 
sets  down  the  beginning  of  his  troubles  to  this  effect.  St. 
Clemens  having  converted  Theodora,  a  noble  lady,  and 
afterwards  her  husband  Sisinnius,  a  kinsman  and  favour- 
ite of  the  late  emperor  Nerva,  the  gaining  so  great  a  man 
quickly  drew  on  others  of  chief  note  and  quality  to  em- 
brace the  faith.  So  prevalent  is  the  example  of  religi- 
ous greatness  to  sway  men  to  piety  and  virtue.  But 
envy  naturally  maligns  the  good  of  others,  and  hates  the 
instrument  that  procures  it.  This  good  success  deriv- 
ed upon  him  the  particular  odium  of  Torcutianus,*"  a  man 
of  great  power  and  authority  at  that  time  in  Rome,  who 
by  the  inferior  magistrates  of  the  city,  excited  the  people 
to  a  mutiny  against  the  holy  man,  charging  him  with 
magic  and  sorcery,  and  for  being  an  enemy  and  blas- 
phemer of  the  gods,  crying  out  either  that  he  should  do 
sacrifice  to  them,  or  expiate  his  impiety  with  his  blood. 
Mamertinus  praefect  of  the  city,  a  moderate  and  prudent 
man,  being  willing  to  appease  the  uproar,  sent  for  St. 
Clemens,  and  mildly  persuaded  him  to  comply.  But 
finding  his  resolution  inflexible,  he  sent  to  acquaint  the 
emperor  with  the  case,  who  returned  this  short  rescript, 
that  he  should  either  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  or  be  banish- 
ed to  Cher  son,  a  disconsolate  city  beyond  the  Pontic 
sea.     Mamertinus  having  received  the  imperial  mandate, 

c  ubi  supr.  p.  9. 

tl  Habitur  Grxc.  &  Lat.  integpum  ap.  Coteler.  loc.  cit.  p.  826. 

e  Id.  ibid.  p.  83J. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  195 

unwillingly  complied  with  it,  and  gaAC  orders  that  all 
things  should  be  made  ready  for  the  voyage,  and  accord- 
ingly he  was  transported  thither,  to  dig  in  the  marble 
quarries,  and  labour  in  the  mines.  Damnntio  ad  Mt?- 
talla  is  a  punishment  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Roman 
laws,  where  it  is  said  to  be  proxima  mortt  posna,^  the  very 
next  to  capital  punishments.  Indeed  the  usage  under  it 
was  very  extreme  and  rigorous  :  for  besides  the  severest 
labour  and  most  intolerable  hardship,  the  condemned 
person  was  treated  with  all  the  instances  of  inhumanity, 
whipped  and  beaten,  chained  and  fettered,  deprived  of 
his  estate,^  which  was  forfeited  to  the  exchequer,  and  the 
person  himself  perpetually  degraded  into  the  condition  of 
a  slave,  and  consequently  rendered  incapable  to  make  a 
will.  And  not  this  only,  but  they  were  further  exposed 
to  the  most  public  marks  of  infamy  and  dishonour,  ''their 
heads  half  shaved,  their  right  eye  bored  out,  their  left  leg 
disabled,  their  foreheads  branded  with  an  infamous  mark, 
a  piece  of  disgrace  first  used  in  this  case  by  'Caligula 
(and  the  historian  notes  it  as  an  instance  of  his  cruel 
temper)  and  from  him  continued  till  the  times  of  Con- 
stantine,  who  abolished  it  by  a  4aw  ann.  Chr.  315,  not  to 
mention  the  hunger  and  thirst,  the  cold  and  nakednes,  the 
filth  and  nastiness,  which  they  were  forced  to  conflict 
with  in  those  miserable  places. 

8.  Arriving  at  the  place  of  his  uncomfortable  exile,  he 
found  vast  numbers  of  Christians  condemned  to  the  same 
miserable  fate,  whose  minds  were  not  a  little  erected  un- 
der all  their  pressures  at  the  sight  of  so  good  a  man,  by 
\vhose  constant  preaching,  and  the  frequent  miracles  that 
he  wrought,  their  enemies  were  converted  into  a  better 
opinion  of  them  and  their  religion,  the  inhabitants  of 
those  countries  daily  flocking  over  to  the  faith,  so  that  in 
a  little  time  Christianity  had  beaten  paganism  out  of  the 
field,  and  all  monuments  of  idolatry  thereabouts  were  de- 

f  L.  28  AT.  de  pcen.  lib.  48.  Tit  19. 

g  L.36.  iibi  siipr.  1.  12.  ff".  dc  jur.  fisc.  1.  49.  Tit.  14, 1.  1.  de  bon.  damnat.  1. 
8.  Q\ii  test,  fac  poss.  §.  4. 

li  Cypr.  Epist.  77.  ad  Nemes.  p.  155.  Euseb.  1.  8.  c.  12.  p.  30"- 
i  Sueton.  in  vit.  Calig-.  c   27.  p.  428. 
k:  L.  2.  Cod.  Th.  de'paen.  1.  9.  Tit.  AQ. 


196  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

faced  and  overturned.  The  fame  whereof  was  quickly 
carried  to  the  emperor,  who  despatched  Aufidianus  the 
president,  to  put  a  stop  to  this  growing  sect,  which  by 
methods  of  terror  and  cruehy  he  set  upon,  putting  great 
numbers  of  them  to  death.  But  finding  how  readily  and 
resolutely  they  pressed  up  to  execution,  and  that  this  da\  's 
martyrs  did  but  prepare  others  for  to-morrow's  torments, 
he  giwe  over  contending  with  the  multitude,  and  resolved 
to  single  out  one  of  note  above  the  rest,  whose  exemplary 
punishment  might  strike  dread  and  terror  into  the  rest. 
To  this  purpose  St.  Clemens  is  pitched  on,  and  all  temp- 
tations being  in  vain  tried  upon  him,  the  executioners 
are  commanded  to  carry  him  aboard  and  throw  him  into 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  where  the  Christians  might  despair 
to  find  him.  This  kind  of  death  was  called  za7=(7r'.vpt/5-/^if, 
and  was  in  use  not  only  among  the  Greeks,  as  appears 
by  the  instance  mentioned  by  ^  Diodorus  Siculus, 
but  the  Romans,  as  we  find  in  several  malefactors  con- 
demned to  be  thrown  into  the  sea  both  by  "Tiberius  and 
Avidius  Cassius.  To  this  our  Lord  has  respect,  when 
in  the  case  of  wilful  scandal,  he  pronounces  it  better  for 
the  man  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and 
he  cast  into  the  bottom  ofthcsea.^  Where  though  °  St. 
Hierom  tells  us  that  this  punishment  was  usual  among 
the  ancient  Jews  in  case  of  more  enormous  crimes,  yet 
do  I  not  remember  that  any  such  capital  punishment  ever 
prevailed  among  them.  I  shall  not  here  relate  what  I 
find  concerning  the  strange  and  miraculous  discovery  of 
St.  Clemens's  body,  nor  the  particular  miracle  of  a  little 
child  preserved  in  the  church  erected  to  him  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  sea  for  a  whole  year  together  (though  solemnly 
averred  by  ''Ephrasm  bishop  of  the  place)  as  despairing 
they  would  ever  find  a  belief  wide  enough  to  swallow 
them,  nor  those  infinite  other  miracles  said  to  be  done 
there  ;  it  shall  only  suffice  to  mention  one  ;  that  upon  the 
anniversary  solemnity  of  his  mai'tyrdom  the  sea  retreats 

1  BibUoth.l   16. 

m  Sueon.  in  vit.  Tib.  c.  6  .  p.  566.  Viil.  Gallic,  in  Avid  Gas"?,  c.  4  p.    247. 
n  Mark  ix.  42.  o  Com.  in  Matt.  18.  p.  53.  Tom.  9. 

p  Serm.  de  mirar.  in  puer.  a  St,  Clem.  fact.  ap.  Sur.  Novcm-b._  23.  84  Gr.  i 
Lat,  ap.  Coteler.  p.  837- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  197 

on  each  side  into  heaps,  and  leaves  a  fair  and  dry  passage 
for  three  miles  together  to  the  martyr's  tomb,  erected 
within  a  church,  built  (as  it  must  be  supposed  by  angels) 
u'ithin  the  sea,  and  the  people's  devotions  being  ended, 
the  sea  returns  to  its  own  place,  TijAiyr^  ^ieii  K-ia^^^a.  tIv  /^ie,- 
Tvgi,  says  '^  one  of  my  authors,  God  by  this  means  doing- 
honour  to  the  martyr.  I  only  add,  that  these  traditions 
were  current  before  the  time  of  Gregory  bishop  of  Tours, 
■■  who  speaks  of  them  with  great  reverence  and  devotion. 
St.  Clemens  died  (as  both  *  Eusebius  and  *St.  Hierom 
witness,  for  I  heed  not  the  account  of  the  Alexandrin 
Chronicon,  which  places  it  four  years  after,  Trajan  VIL 
though  the  consuls  which  he  there  assigns  properly  be. 
long  to  the  IV.  of  that  emperor)''  in  the  third  year  of  Tra- 
jan, a  little  more  than  two  years  after  his  banishment, 
after  he  had  been  sole  bishop  of  Rome  nine  years  six 
months  and  so  many  days,  'say  Baronius  and  others, 
though  Bucherius's  catalogue,  more  to  be  trusted  (as  be- 
ing composed  before  the  death  of  pope  Liberius,  ann. 
354,)  nine  years  eleven  months  and  twelve  days  His 
martyrdom  happened  on  the  24.th  of  November,  accord- 
ing to  Baronius  and  the  ordinary  Roman  computation, 
but  on  the  ninth  of  that  month,  says  the  little  martyrolo- 
gy  published  by  '"Bucherius,  and  which  unquestionably 
was  one  of  the  true  and  genuine  calendars  of  the  ancient 
church.  He  was  honoured  at  Rome  by  a  church  erect- 
ed to  his  memory,  yet  standing  in  ''St.  Hierom's  time. 

9.  The  writings  which  at  this  day  bear  the  name  of 
this  apostolic  man,  are  of  two  sorts,  genuine  or  supposi- 
tious In  the  first  class  is  that  famous  epistle  to  the  Co- 
rinthians, so  much  magnified  by  the  ancients,  ('v.^tvoT^V;, 
-g:,?);(as  ^Ireuceus  calls  it)  the  most  excellent  and  absolute 
writing,  ^s>=tx;,  ts  ;';  3-wy.acri«,  says  ^Euscblus  a  truly  great  and 
admirable  epistle,  and  very  useful  as  "  St.  Hierom  adds, 

q  Ibid.  p.  841.  r  De  mirac.  1.  1.  c.  r>5,  36,  p.  46.         ^ 

s  Lib.  3.  c  34.  p.  106.  t  De  Script.  Eccl.  in  Clem. 

u  Ann.  4.  Olymp.  CCXX.  Ind   1.  p.  594. 

V  ubi  supra.  w  Loc.  supr.  citut.  p.  269. 

X  De  Script,  in  Clement. 

y  Adv.  Hxres.  1.  3.  ap.  Eiiseb,  1.  3.  c.  6.  p.  170. 

z  Lib.  3.  c.  16.  p.  88.  a  De  Script.  Fccles.  in  Clem. 


198  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

^ytf.Koy®',  as  ''Photius  styles  it,  worthy  of  all  esteem  and  ve- 
neration, d.m!xo-Koy^.;Av>^  Tff^e^i  ttSti,  US  "^Eusebius  assurcs  us,  re- 
ceived  by  all,  and  indeed  reverenced  by  them  next  to  the 
Holy   Scriptures,  and   therefore  publicly  read  in  their 
churches  for  some  ag-es,  even  till  his  time,  and  it  may  be 
a  long  time  after.     The  style  of  it  (as  "^Photius  truly  ob- 
serves) is  very  plain  and  simple,    imitating  an  ecclesias- 
tical and  unaffected  way  of  writing,  and  which  breathes 
the  true  genius  and  spirit  of  the  apostolic  age.     It  was 
written  upon  occasion  of  a  great  schism  and  sedition  in 
the  church  of  Corinth,  begun  by  two  or  three  factious 
persons  against  the  governors  of  the  church,  who  envy- 
ing either  the  gifts,  or  the  authority  and  esteem  of  their 
guides  and  teachers,  had  attempted  to  depose  them,  and 
had  drawn  the  greatest  part  of  the  church  into  the  con- 
spiracy :   whom  therefore  he  endeavours  by  soft  words 
and  hard  arguments  to  reduce  back  to  peace  and  unity. 
His  modesty  and  humility  in  it  are  peculiarly  discernible, 
not  only  that  he  wholly  writes  it  in  the  name  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  without  so  much  as  ever  mentioning 
his  own,  but  in  that  he  treats  them  with  such  gentle  and 
mild  persuasives.     Nothing  of  sourness,   or  an  imperi- 
ous lording  it  over  GocVs  heritage  to  be  seen  in  the  whole 
epistle.     Had  he  known  himself  to  be  the  infallible  judge 
of  controversies,  to  whose  sentence  the  whole  Christian 
world  was  bound  to  stand,  invested  with  a  supreme  un- 
accountable power,  from  which  there  lay  no  appeal,  wc 
might  have  expected  to  have  heard  him  argue  at  another 
rate.     But  these  were   the  encroachments  and  usurpa- 
tions of  later  ages,  when  a  spirit  of  covetousness  and  se- 
cular ambition  had  stifled  the  modesty  and  simplicity  of 
those  first  and  best  ages  of  religion.     There  is  so  great 
an  affinity  in  many  things   both  as  to  words  and  matter 
between  this  and  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  as  tempted 
Eusebius  and  St.  Hierom  of  old,  and  some  others  before 
them,  to  conclude  St.  Clemens  at  least  the  translator  of 
that  epistle.^    This  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  after  it  had 


l>  Cod.  CXIT.  col  289.  c  Ibid.  c.  38.  p.  110. 

a  Cod.  CXXVI.'col.  305.  c  Ibid. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEiMENS.  199 

been  generally  bewailed  as  lost  for  many  ages,  was,  not 
more  to  the  benefit  of  the  church  in  general,  than  the 
lionour  of  our  own  in  particular,  some  forty  years  since 
published  here  in  England,  a  treasure  not  sufficiently  to 
be  valued.  Besides  this  first,  there  is  the  fragment  of  a 
second  Epistle,  or  rather  homily,  containing  a  serious  ex- 
hortation and  direction  to  a  pious  life :  ancient  indeed, 
and  which  many  \\-ill  persuade  us  to  be  his,  and  to  have 
been  written  many  jears  before  the  former,  as  that  which 
betrays  no  footsteps  of  troublesome  and  unquiet  times  : 
*"but  Eusebius.  St.  Hierom,  and  Photius  assure  us,  that 
it  was  rejected,  and  never  obtained  among  the  ancients 
equal  approbation  with  the  first.  And  therefore  though 
we  do  not  peremptorily  determine  against  its  being  his, 
yet  we  think  it  safer  to  acquiesce  in  the  judgment  of  the 
ancients,  than  of  some  few  late  writers  in  this  matter. 

10.  As  for  those  writings  that  are  undoubtedly  spuri- 
ous and  suppositious,  disowned  (as  ^Eusebius  says)  be- 
cause they  did  not  KaS-ago»  Ta^sr-^/xHC  c:3-',(f',|tjtC2t7n3-&'(^e/v'rov;^^'Joay.T^- 

gt,  retain  the  true  stamp  of  orthodox  apostolic  doctrine, 
though  the  truth  is,  he  speaks  it  only  of  the  dialogues  of 
Peter  and  Appion,  not  mentionir.g  the  decretal  epistles, 
as  not  worth  taking  notice  of,  there  are  four  extant  at 
this  day  that  ai-e  entitled  to  him,  the  Apostolical  canons 
and  the  Constitutions  (said  to  be  penned  by  him,  though 
dictated  by  the  Apostles)  the  Recognitions,  and  the  Epistle 
to  St.  James.  For  the  two  first,  the  Apostolic  Canons  and 
Constitutions,''  I  have  declared  mv  sense  of  them  in  ano- 
ther  place,  to  which  1  shall  add  nothing  here.  The  Re- 
cognitions succeed,  conveyed  to  us  under  different  titles 
by  the  ancients,  sometimes  styled  St.  Clemens'^  acts, 
history,  chronicle,  sometimes  St.  Peter's  acts,  itinerary, 
periods,  dialogues  with  Appion,  all  v/hich  are  unquesti- 
onably but  different  inscrijjtions  (or  it  may  be  parcels  of 
the  same  book.  True  it  is  what  'Photius  suspected,  and 
^'Rufinus  (who  translated  it)  expressly  tells  us,  that  there 

f  Loc's  siipr.  citat.  g  Ihid.paj.  110. 

h   Pia:f.  to  Friniit.  Chriitianity.  i   Cod.  CZII,  col.  289. 

k.  Pra:riit.  id  Gaudent.  p.  397. 


200  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

were  two  several  editions  of  this  book,  differing  in  some 
■things,  but  the  same  in  most.  And  it  deserves  to  be 
considered,  whether  the  Td  K>.>,y.ivii-j.  mentioned  by  'Nice- 
phoriis,  and  which  he  says  the  church  received,  and  de- 
nies to  be  those  meant  by  Eusebius,  and  those  Cle- 
mentine homilies  lately  published  under  that  very  name, 
be  not  that  other  edition  of  the  Recognitions  seeing  they 
exactly  answer  Rufinus's  character,  difi'ering  in  some 
thingSj  but  in  most  agreeing  with  them.  There  is  yet  a 
third  edition,  or  rather  abstract  out  of  all,  styled,  K^fAifi®- 
-nrsg)  Tav  wg«|sav,  &c.  Clcmeus's  cpitomc  of  the  acts,  tra- 
vels, and  preachings  of  St.  Peter,  agreeing  with  the  for- 
mer, though  keeping  more  clobc  to  the  homilies  than  the 
other.  This  I  guess  to  have  been  compiled  by  Simeon 
the  metaphrast,  as  for  other  reasons,  so  especially  because 
the  appendage  added  to  it  by  the  same  hand  concerning 
Clemens's  martyrdom  is  word  for  word  the  same  with 
that  of  Metaphrastes,  tlie  close  of  it  only  excepted,  which 
is  taken  out  of  St.  Ephrasm's  homily  of  the  miracle  done 
at  his  tomb. 

IL  The  Recognitions  themselves  are  undoubtedly  of 
very  great  antiquity,  written  about  the  same  time,  and  by 
the  same  hand  (as  Blondel  probably  conjectures)  with  the 
Constitutions  about  the  year  180,  or  not  long  after.  Sure 
I  am,  they  are  cited  by  "'Origen  as  the  work  of  Clemens 
in  his  periods,  and  his  large  quotation  is  in  so  many 
words  "extant  in  them  at  this  day.  Nay  before  him  we 
meet  with  a  \'ery  long  fragment  of  Baidesanes  the  "Syri- 
an (who  flourished  ann.  18('.)  concerning  Fate,  word  for 
word  the  same  with  what  we  find  in  the  Recognitions, 
and  it  seems  equaliy  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Barde- 
sanes  had  it  thence,  as  that  the  other  borrowed  it  from 
him.  Nay  what  if  Bardesanes  himself  was  the  author 
of  these  books?  It  is  certain  that  he  was  a  man  of  great 
parts  and  learning,  a  man  prompt  and  eloquent,  5  <r/«A«K]/xa- 
ToCj,;,^  an  acute  and  subtle  disputant,  heretically  inclined,'' 

1  II.  Eccl.  3.  c.  18.  p  248.  m  Pseiido-Isid.  p.  28. 

n   Philocal.c.  23.  p.  81,  82.  o  Uccognit.  1. 10. 

p  Extatap.  Eiiseb.  Piasp.  Evan.  1.  6.  c.  10.  p   273  &  seq.  vid.  Recogn.  lib. 
9.  p.  503,  &ic. 

(]  Eiiscb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  4.  c.  30.  p.  lil.Epiph.  Hsrcs.  LVI.  p.  ^07. 


THE   LIFE  OF    ST.  CLEMENS.  201 

for  he  came  out  of  the  school  of  Valentinus,  whose  un- 
couth notions  he  had  so  deeply  imbibed,  that  even  after 
his  recantation,  he  could  never  get  clear  from  the  dregs 
of  them,  as  Eusebius  informs  us :  though  Epiphanius 
tells  us  he  was  first  orthodox,  and  afterwards  fell  into  the 
errors  of  that  sect,  like  a  well  freighted  ship  that  having 
duly  performed  its  voyage,  is  cast  away  in  the  very 
sight  of  the  harbour.  He  was  a  great  mathematician 
and  astrologer,  w  «Kg=v  'f  xax/ctix??  Wis-ii/u>,(  iAw.ax«f,  "accurately 
versed  in  the  Chaldean  learning,  and  wrote  incomparable 
dialogues  concerning  fate,  which  he  dedicated  to  the 
emperor  Antoninus.  And  surely  none  can  have  looked 
into  the  Recognitions,  but  he  he  must  see  what  a  consi- 
derable  part  the  doctrines  concerning  fate,  the  Genesis, 
the  influence  of  the  stars  and  heavenly  constellations,  and 
such  like  notions  make  there  of  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Cie- 
mens's  dialogues  and  discourses.  To  which  we  may 
add  what  Photius  has  observed,P  and  is  abundantly  evi- 
dent from  the  thing  itself,  that  these  books  are  consider- 
able for  their  clearness  and  perspicuity,  their  eloquent 
style,  and  grave  discourses,  and  that  great  variety  of 
learning  that  is  in  them,  plainly  showing  their  composer 
to  have  been  a  master  in  all  human  learning,  and  the 
study  of  philosophy.  I  might  further  remark,  that  Bar- 
desanes  seems  to  have  had  a  peculiar  genius  for  books 
of  this  nature,  it  being  particularly  "^noted  of  him,  that 
besides  the  Scriptures,  he  had  traded  in  certain  apocry- 
phal writings.  He  wrote  '^x«7s-«  {^uf^gaV^a?*,  'which  St.  Hie- 
rom  renders  infinite  volumes,  written  indeed  for  the 
most  part  in  Syriac,  but  which  his  scholars  translated 
into  Greek,  though  he  himself  was  sufficiently  skilfuU  in 
that  language,  as  Epiphanius  notes.  In  the  number  of 
these  books  might  be  the  Recognitions,  plausibly  father- 
ed upon  St.  Clemens,  who  was  notoriously  knov*^n  to 
be  St.  Peter's  companion  and  disciple :  and  were  but 
some  of  his  many  books  now  extant,  I  doubt  not  but  a 
much  greater  affinity  both  in  style  and  notions  would  ap- 

o  Euseb.  prsep.  Evan.  1.  6.  c.  9.  p.  273.  p  Ubi  supra.  q  Epiph.  lac. 

■rlt.        V  £us.b.  H  Eccl.  ubi  s'ipr.de  Script.  EccL  ia  Bardes. 

C  C 


202  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

pear  between  them.     But  this  I  propose  only  as  a  pro- 
bable conjecture,  and  leave  it   at  the  reader's  pleasure 
either  to  reject  or  entertain  it.     I  am  not  ignorant  that 
both  'St.  Hierom,  and  Thotius  charge  these  books  with 
heretical  opinions,  especially  some  derogatory  to  the  ho- 
nour of  the  Son  of  God,  which  it  may  be  Rufinus  (who 
"confesses   the  same  thing,  and  supposes  them  to  have 
been  inserted  by  some  heretical  hand)  concealed  in  his 
translation  :  Nay,  'Epiphanius  tells  us,  that  the  Ebion- 
ites  did  so  extremely  corrupt  them,  that  they  scarce  left 
any  thing  of   St.  Clemens's  sound   and   true  in  them, 
which  he  observes  from  their  repugnancy  to  his  other 
writings,  those  Encyclical  epistles  of  his  (as  he  calls  them) 
which  were  read  in  the  churches.  But  then  it  is  plain,  he 
means  it  only  of  those  copies  which  were  in  the  posses- 
sion of  those  heretics,  probably  not  now  extant,   nor  do 
any  of  those  particular  adulterations  which  he  says  they 
made  in  them,    appear  in  our  books,  nor  in  those  large 
and  to  be  sure  uncorrupt  fragments  of  Bardesanes  and 
Origen  is  there  the  least  considerable  variation  from  those 
books  which  we  have  at  this  day.     But  of  this  enough. 
12.  The  epistle  to  St.  James  the  brother  of  our  Lord 
is,  no  doubt,  of  equal  date  with  the  rest,   in  the  close 
whereof  the  author  pretends  that  he  was  commanded  by 
St.  Peter  to  give  him  an   account  of  his  travels,   dis- 
courses, and    the    success  of  his  ministry,    under  the 
title   of  Clemens's   Epitome  of  Peter^s  popular  preach- 
ings^ to  which  he  tells  him  he  Avould  next  proceed.     So 
that  this  epistle  originally  was  nothing  but  a  preface  to 
St.  Peter's  Acts  or  Periods  (the  same  in  effect  with  the 
Recognitions)  and  accordingly  in  the  late  edition  of  the 
Clementine  homilies  (which  have  the  very  title  mention- 
tioned  in  that  epistle)  it  is  found  prefixed  before  them. 
This  epistle  (as  Photius  tells  us")   varied   according  to 
different  editions,   sometimes  pretending  that  it,  and  the 
account  of  St.  Peter's  acts  annexed  to  it,  were  written 
by  St.  Peter  himself,  and  by  him  sent  to  St,  James ; 

s  Apol.  adv.  Uiifin.  )).  2i9.  t  Pliot.  Cod.  rxii   col.  289.  ii  Apolog-. 

pro.  Grig',  ap.  Hicron.  Tom.  4.  p.  19J.  v  IIki-cs,  xxx.  p.  ^5.  s  J^oc. 

supra  citat. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  203 

sometimes  that  they  were  written  by  St.  Clemens  at  St. 
Peter's  instance  and  command.  Whence  he  conjectures 
that  there  was  a  twofold  edition  of  St.  Peter's  acts,  one 
said  to  be  written  by  himself,  the  other  by  St.  Clemens, 
and  that  when  in  time  the  first  was  lost,  that  pretending 
to  St.  Clemens  did  remain  :  For  so  he  assures  us  he  con- 
stantly found  it  in  those  many  copies  that  he  met  with, 
notwithstanding  that  the  epistle  and  inscription  were 
sometimes  different  and  various.  By  the  original  whereof 
now  published  appears  the  fraud  of  the  factors  of  the  Ro- 
mish church,  who  in  all  Latin  editions  have  added  an 
appendix  almost  twice  as  large  as  the  epistle  itself.  And 
well  had  it  been,  had  this  been  the  only  instance  wherein 
some  men  to  shore  up  a  tottering  cause,  have  made  bold 
with  the  writers  of  the  ancient  church. 

HIS  WRITIXGS. 

Genuine.  Recognitionum  lib.  10. 

Epistola  ad  Corinthios. 

Doubtful.  sen, 

Epistola  ad  Corinth,  sccunda.      Homillse  Clementinae. 

SupposH'itiGUs.  Consdtutionum  App.  lib.  8. 

Epistola  ad  Jacobum 

Fratrem  Domini.  Canones  Apostolici. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON, 

BISHOP  OF  JERUSALEM. 


The  heedless  confounding  him  -with  others  of  the  like  name.  His  pa- 
rents and  near  relation  to  our  Saviour.  The  time  of  his  birth.  His 
strict  education  and  way  of  life.  The  order  and  institution  of  the  Re- 
chabites,  what.  His  conversion  to  Christianity.  The  great  care  about 
a  successor  to  St.  James  bishop  of  Jerusalem.  Simeon  chosen  to  that 
place,  when  and  why.  The  causes  of  the  destruction  of  the  Jewish 
state.  The  original  and  progress  of  those  wars  briefly  related.  The 
miserable  state  of  Jerusalem  by  siege,  pestilence,  and  famine.  Jeru- 
salem stormed.  The  burning  of  the  temple,  and  the  rage  of  the  fire. 
The  number  of  the  slain  and  captives.  The  just  accomplisliment  of 
our  Lord's  predictions.  The  many  prodigies  portending  this  destruc- 
tion. The  Christians  forwarned  to  depart  before  Jerusalem  was  sJmt 
up.  Their  withdrawment  to  Pella.  The  admirable  care  of  the  Di- 
vine Providence  over  them.  Their  return  back  to  Jerusalem,  when. 
The  flourishing  condition  of  the  Christian  church  there.  The  occasion 
of  St.  Simeon's  martyrdom.  The  infinite  jealousy  of  the  Roman  empe- 
rors concerning  the  line  of  David.  Simeon's  apprehension  and  cruci- 
fixion. His  singular  torments  and  patience.  His  great  age,  and  the 
time  of  his  death.  .. 

1.  IT  cannot  be  unobserved  by  any  that  have  but 
looked  into  the  antiquities  of  the  church,  what  confusion 
the  identity  or  simiUtude  of  names  has  bred  among  eccle- 
siastic writers,  especially  in  the  more  early  ages,  where 
the  records  are  but  short  and  few.  An  instance  whereof, 
tvere  there  no  other,  we  have  in  the  person  of  whom  we 
write* :  whom  some  will  have  to  be  the  same  with  St. 
Simon  the  Canaanite,  one  of  the  twelve  apostles  ;  others 

a  Vid.  Chron.  Alexandr.  Olymp.  CCXX.  Ind,  1,  Traj.  VII.  et  Ann.  Bcquent. 
p.  594. 


206  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON. 

confound  him  with  Simon,  one  of  the  four  brethren  of 
our  Loi'd,  while  a  third  sort  make  all  three  to  be  but  one 
and  the  same  person  :  the  sound  and  similitude  of  names 
giving  birth  to  the  several  mistakes.  For  that  Simeon 
of  Jerusalem  was  a  person  altogether  distinct  from  Simon 
the  apostle,  is  undeniably  evident  from  the  most  ancient 
martyrologies  both  of  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  church, 
where  vastly  different  accounts  are  given  concerning 
tiieir  persons,  employments,  and  the  time  and  places  of 
their  death  ;  Simon  the  apostle,  being  martyred  in  Bri- 
tain, or  as  others,  in  Persia,  while  Simeon  the  bishop  is 
notoriously  known  to  have  suffered  in  Palestine  or  in  Sy- 
ria. Nor  are  the  testimonies  of  Dorotheus,  Sophroni- 
us,  or  Isidore,  considerable  enough  to  be  weighed  against 
the  authorities  of  Hegesippus,  Eusebius,  Epiphanius, 
and  others.     But  of  this  enough. 

2.  St.  Simeon  was  the  son  of  ^  Cleophas,  brother  to 
Joseph,  husband  to  the  blessed  Virgin,  and  so  his  father 
had  the  honour  to  be  uncle  to  our  Saviour,  in  the  same 
sense  that  Joseph  was  his  father.  His  mother  (say  *" 
some)  was  Mary  the  Vvife  of  Cleophas,  mentioned  in  the 
I;istory  of  the  Gospel,  sister  or  cousin-german  to  the  mo- 
ther of  our  Lord  :  And  if  so,  he  was  by  both  sides  nearly 
related  to  our  Saviour.  He  was  born  (as  appears  from 
his  age,  and  the  date  of  his  martyrdom  assigned  by  Eu- 
j^.ebius)  Ann.  Mundi  3956,  thirteen  years  according  to  the 
vulgar  computation  before  our  Saviour's  incarnation.  His 
education  was  according  to  the  severest  rules  of  religion 
Tjroiessed  in  the  Jewish  church,  being  entered  into  the  or- 
dcv  of  the  Rechabites,  as  may  be  proI:)ably  collected  from 
:he  ancients.  For  '*  Hegesippus  informs  us,  that  v/hen  the 
•lews  were  busily  engaged  in  tlie  martyrdom  of  St.  James 
the  just,  a  Rechabite  priest,  one  of  the  generation  of  the 
^■ons  of  Rechab  mentioned  by  the  prophet  Jeremy,  stept 
ir.,  and  interceeded  with  the  people  to  spare  so  just  and 

b  Hcg'csjp.  r.p.  Eusch.  1.  S.  c.  11.  p.  87.  Epipli.  Hjeres.  t.XVl.  pi  27A,  et 
'>t'riJiia  antifjua  Martvroiotriii,  Ador.is,  IJedje,  NotkerJ,  Usuaidi  apiid  Eollund, 
ilv  Vit.  SS.iid  diem  ZVIII.  Fehr.  pr.j.  53,  54. 

i:  Hcpcpsip.  ib.  c.  32.  p.  104.  Ni-cph.  1.  f>.  r.  IG.  p.  21.T. 

d  \h\'A  1.  C,  c  11.3.  p.  65. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON.  ^or 

good  a  man,  and  one  that  was  then  praying  to  Heaven  for 
them.  This  person  "  Epiphanius  expressly  tells  us  Wiis 
St.  Simeon  the  son  of  Cleophas,  and  cousin-<j^erman  to 
the  holy  martyr.  The  Rechabites  were  an  aneient  insti- 
tution, founded  by  Jonadab  the  son  of  Reehab,  who  fxou- 
rished  in  the  reign  of  Jehu,  and  obliged  his  posterity  to 
these  following  rules,  to  drink  no  wine,  sow  no  fields, 
plant  no*^  vineyards,  build  no  houses,  but  to  dwell  only 
in  tents  and  tabernacles.  All  which  precepts  (the  last 
only  excepted,  which  wars  and  foreign  im  anions  would 
not  suffer  them  to  observe)  they  kept  with  the  most  reli- 
gious reverence,  and  are  therefore  highly  commended  by 
God  for  their  exact  conformity  to  the  laws  of  their  insti- 
tution, and  brought  in  to  upbraid  the  degeneracy  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  in  violating  the  commands  he  had  laid 
upon  them.  They  continued  it  seems  (and  so  God  had 
promised  them,  that  they  shotdd  not  ivant  a  man  to  stand 
before  him  for  ever  J  till  the  very  last  times  of  the  Jewish 
church,  though  little  notice  be  taken  of  them,  as  indeed 
they  are  but  once  mentioned  throughout  the  whole  histo- 
ry of  the  bible,  and  that  only  accidentally,  and  then  loo  no 
less  than  three  hundred  years  after  their  first  institution, 
Probable  it  is,  that  in  after-times  all  Rechabites  were  not 
Jonadab's  immediate  descendants,  but  that  all  were  ac- 
counted such,  who  took  upon  them  the  observance  of 
the  same  rules  and  orders  whicli  Jonadab  had  prescribed 
to  his  immediate  posterity.  It  further  seems  probable 
to  me,  that  from  these  Rechabites,  the  Essenes,  that  fa- 
mous sect  among  the  Jews,  iDorroued  their  original ;  that 
part  of  them  especially,  that  dwelt  in  towns  and  cities, 
and  in  many  things  conformed  themselves  to  the  rules  of 
the  civil  and  sociable  life.  For  as  for  the  <di«i^?.i^^^  describ- 
ed ^  by  Philo,  they  gave  up  themselves  mainly  to  solitude 
and  contemplation,  lived  in  forests  and  among  groves  of 
palm-trees,  and  shunned  all  intercourse  and  converse  Aviil) 
other  men.     While  the  practic  part  of  them  (more  par- 

e  Hscres.  LXXVIII.  p.  441.,  f  Jcr.x.xxv.  2,  3,  &c. 


208  THE  LIFE  GF  ST.  SIMEON. 

ticularly  taken  notice  of  by  ^  Josephus)  though  abstaining 
from  marriage,  and  despising  the  riches  and  pleasures  of 
this  world,  did  yet  reside  in  cities,  and  places  of  public 
concourse,  labour  in  their  several  trades  and  callings, 
maintain  hospitality,  and  were  united  in  a  common  col- 
lege and  society,  where  they  were  kept  to  a  solemn  ob- 
servance of  the  great  duties  of  religion,  and  devoted  to 
the  orders  of  a  very  strict  pious  life.  And  among  these, 
I  doubt  not,  the  Rechabites  were  incorporated  and  swal- 
lowed up,  though  it  may  be  together  with  the  general 
name  of  Essenes,  they  might  still  retain  their  particular 
and  proper  name.     But  to  return. 

3.  His  first  institution  in  Christianity  was  probably 
laid  under  the  discipline  of  our  Lord  himself,  whose  au- 
ditor and  follower '  Hegesippus  supposes  him  to  have 
been ;  and  in  all  likelihood  he  was  one  of  the  seventy 
disciples,  in  which  capacity  he  continued  many  years, 
when  he  was  advanced  to  a  place  of  great  honour  and 
eminency  in  the  church.  About  the  year  sixty-two,  St. 
James  the  just,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  by  the  artifices  of 
Ananus  the  high  priest,  had  been  cruelly  martyred  by 
the  Jews.  The  providing  for  whose  place  was  so  far 
thought  to  be  the  concernment  of  the  whole  Christian 
church,  that  the  apostles  and  disciples  of  our  Lord  are 
said  ^  to  have  come  from  all  parts  to  advise  and  consult 
with  those  of  our  Saviour's  kindred  and  relations,  about 
a  fit  successor  in  his  room.  None  was  thought  meet  to 
be  a  candidate  for  the  place,  but  one  of  our  Lord's  own 
relations  ;  and  accordingly  with  one  consent  they  de- 
volved the  honour  upon  Simeon,  our  Lord's  next  kins- 
man, whom  they  all  judged  most  worthy  of  the  place. 
I  know  Eusebius  seems  to  intimate  that  this  election  was 
made  not  only  after  St.  James's  death,  but  after  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  between  which  there  was  the 
distance  of  no  less  than  eight  or  nine  years.  But  (be- 
sides that  Eusebius  makes  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
immediately  to  succeed  upon  St.  James's  martyrdom. 

h  De  Bell.  Jud.  1.  Z-  K«^,  i0  p.  ^S^.  et.  Antiq,  Jud.  1.  18.  c.  2.  p,  eir. 

i  Ap  Luseb.  1. 3.c.  32  p.  104. 

k  Ibid.  c.  11.  p.  86.  vid.  lib.  4.  c.  22-  p.  142. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON.  ?iop 

when  yet  there  was  so  great  a  space)  it  is  very  unreasorir 
.able  to  suppose  that  so  famous  and  eminent  a  chiirch,  a 
church  newly  constituted,  and  planted  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  bitter  and  inveterate  enemies,  should  for  so 
long  a  time  be  destitute  of  a  guide  and  pastor,  especially 
seeing  the  apostles  were  all  long  since  dispersed  into  se- 
veral remote  quarters  of  the  world  :  not  to  say  that  most 
of  the  apostles  were  dead  before  that  time  ;  or  if  they 
had  not,  could  not  very  conveniently  have  returned  and 
met  together  about  this  affair  in  so  dismal  and  distracted 
a  state  of  things,  as  the  Roman  wars,  and  the  utter  mint 
and  overthrow  of  the  Jewish  nation  had  then  put  those 
parts  into.  Besides  that '  Eusebius  himself  elsewhere 
places  Simeon's  succession  immediately  after  St.  James'§ 
martyrdom.  Nor  is  the  least  vacancy  in  that  see  menr 
tioned  by  any  other  v/riter.  The  ""  Chronicle  of  Alexan- 
dria places  his  succession  Ann.  LXIXo  for  it  tells  us, 
that  this  year  St.  James  the  apostle  and  patriarch  of  Jeru- 
salem (whom  St.  Peter  at  the  time  of  his  going  to  RomCj 
as  his  proper  see,  had  ordained  to  that  place  ;  this  pasr 
sage,  it  is  plain  the  publisher  for  want  of  rightly  distin= 
guishing,  did  not  understand)  dying,  Simeon  or  Simoii 
was  made  patriarch  in  his  roorn.  But  this  account  is 
against  the  faith  of  all  the  ancients,  who  make  St.  James  tQ 
have  suffered  martyrdom  several  years  before ;  nor  do  any 
of  them  say  that  he  was  ordained  by  St.  Peter,  many  of 
them  expressly  affirming,  that  he  immediately  receive^ 
his  consecration  from  the  hands  of  our  Lord  himself. 

4.  How  he  managed  the  affairs  of  that  church,  is  not 
distinctly  known,  few  particular  accounts  of  things  being 
transmitted  to  us.  Confident  we  may  be  that  his  presi^ 
dency  was  attended  with  sufficient  trouble  and  difficulty„ 
not  only  from  the  malicious  and  turbulent  temper  of  that 
people,  whom  he  was  continually  expos,ed  to,  but  be- 
pause  it  fell  in  wjth  the  most  black  and  fatal  period  of 
the  Jewish  church.  For  the  sins  of  that  nation  being 
now  ripe  for  vengeance,  and  having  filled  up  the  measure 

1  Chron.  ad.  Ann.  Chr.  Ixii.  m  Anr.  1.  Olympiad,  ccxii.  Indicjt.  ?fy 

Vespas.  2.  p.  580. 

D  d 


210  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON. 

of  their  iniquities  by  their  cruel  usage  of  the  apostles  and 
messengers  of  our  Saviour,  their  barbarous  treatment  of 
St.  Stephen,  and  afterwards  of  St.  James  the  great,  and 
their  last  bloody  murder  of  St.  James  the  less,  but  above 
all,  by  their  insolent  and  merciless  carriage  towards  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  the  wrath  of 
God  came  upon  them  to  the  uttermost,  and  the  Romans 
broke  in  upon  them,  and  took  away  both  their  place  and 
nation.  The  sum  whereof,  because  containing  such  re- 
markable passages  of  Providence,  such  instances  of  severe 
displeasure  towards  a  people  that  for  so  many  ages  had 
enjoyed  the  peculiar  influences  of  the  Divine  favour,  and 
uhose  destruction  at  last  so  evidently  justified  the  pre- 
dictions of  our  Saviour,  and  made  such  immediate  way 
for  the  honour  and  advancement  of  Christianity,  we  shall 
here  relate. 

5.  The  Jews,  a  stubborn  and  unquiet  people,  impa- 
patiently  resented  the  tyranny  of  the  Roman  yoke,  which 
seemed  heavier  to  their  necks  than  it  did  to  other  na- 
tions, because  they  looked  upon  themselves  as  a  more 
freeborn  people,  and  were  elated  with  those  great  charters 
and  immunities  \^'hich  heaven  had  immedialely  conferred 
upon  them.  This  made  them  willing  to  catch  at  any 
opportunity  to  re-assert  themselves  into  their  ancient  li- 
berty. A  thing  which  they  more  unanimously  attempt- 
ed under  the  government  of  "Cestius  Florus,  whom  Nero 
had  sent  to  be  procurator  of  that  province  :  by  whose  in- 
tolerable oppressions  and  insolent  cruelties  for  two  years 
together,  nothing  abated  by  prayers  and  importunities, 
and  the  solicitations  of  potent  intercessors,  their  patience 
was  tired  out,  and  they  broke  out  into  rebellion.  The 
fatal  assault  began  at  Cesarea,"  which  instantly  like  light- 
ning spread  itself  over  the  whole  nation,  till  all  places 
were  full  of  blood  and  violence.  Florus  unable  himself 
to  deal  with  them,  called  in  to  his  assistance  Cestius 
Gallus  the  president  of  Syria,  who  came  from  Antioch 
with  an  army,  took  Joppa  and  some  other  places,  and 

n  Joseph,  de  Bell.  Judaic.  1.  2.  c.  4.  p.  "98.  Egcslp.  de  excid.  Hierosol.  1.  2- 
c.  14.  p.  272,  SiC.  o  Ibid.  »'.  k'.  p.  809. 


X 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON.  211 

sat  down   before  Jerusalem,  but  after  all  was  forced  to 
depart,  and   indeed   to  fly  with  his  whole  army,  leaving 
all  his  warlike   instruments  and  provisions  behind  him. 
The  news  of  this  ill  success  was  soon  carried  to  ^'Nero, 
then  residing  in  Achaia,  who  presently  despatched  Ves- 
pasian (a  man  of  prudent  conduct,  experienced  valour, 
the  best  commander  of  his  time)  to  be  general  of  the  ar- 
my. He  coming  into  Syria,  united  the  Roman  forces,  fell 
into  Galilee,  burnt  Gadara,  and  destroyed  Jotapata,  where 
^Josephus  himself  was  taken  prisoner.     He  pursued  his 
conquests  with  an  unwearied  diligence,   victory  every 
where  attending  upon  his  sword,  and  was  repairing  to 
besiege  Jerusalem,"  when  hearing  of  the  distractions  of 
Italy  by  the  death  of  Nero,  and  the  usurpations  of  Galba, 
Otho,  and  Vitellius,  he  resolved   for   Rome,  to  free  it 
from  those  unhappy  incumbrances  that  were  upon  it ; 
whose  resolutions  herein   were  so  far  applauded  by  the 
army,  that    they   presently  proclaimed    him    emperor. 
Who  thereupon  hastened  into  Egypt  to  secure  that  coun- 
try, a  place  of  so  considerable  importance  to  the  empire. 
6.  From  Alexandria  'Vespasian  remanded  his  son  Ti- 
tus back  into  Judea  to  carry  on  the  war,  who  thought  no 
way  quicker  to  bring  it  to  a  period,  than  to  attempt  the 
capital  city,  to  strike  at  Jerusalem  itself,  and  accordingly 
put  all  things  in  readiness  to  besiege  it.  The  state  of  *Je- 
rusalem  at  this  time  was  very  sad.     That  place,  whose 
honour  and  security  once    it   was  to  be  a  city  at  unity 
■within  itself.,  was  now  torn  in  pieces   with  intestine  fac- 
tions ;  and  how^  unlikely  is  that  kingdom  long  to  stand, 
that  is  once  divided  against   itself?     Simon  the  son  of 
Giora,  a  bold  and  ambitious  man,  had  possessed  himself 
of  the  upper  city  ;  John  who  headed  the  zealots,  an  inso- 
lent and  ungovernable  generation,  commanded  the  lower 
parts,  and  the  out  skirts  of  the  temple ;  the  inner  parts 
whereof  were  secured  by  Eleazar  the  son  of  Simon,  who 
had  drawn  over  a  considerable  number  of  the  soldiers  to 

p  Ibid.  I.  3.  c.  1.  p.  830.         q  lb.  K«(f .  Ui.  p.  850.  Egesip.  1.  3.  c.  18.  p.  351. 
r  Ibid.  1. 5.  Ktp.  X),'.  p.  892.  s  Ibid.  Kk?.  iJi&'i  p.  903.  t  Ibid.  L  6.  c  1. 

p.  904.    Kf^.  kt',p.910. 


2i2  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEOM. 

his  party  ;  and  all  those  mutually  quarrelling  with  ahct 
Opposing  one  another.  Titus  with  his  army  approaching, 
a  iittie  before  the  paschal  solemnity  begirt  the  city, 
drawing  it  by  degrees  into  a  closer  siege,  he  straitly 
blocked  up  all  avenues  and  passages  of  escape,  building 
a  wall  of  thirty-nine  "furlongs,  which  he  strengthenedwith 
thirteen  forts  ;  whereby  he  prevented  all  possibility  of 
either  coming  into,  or  going  out  of  the  city.  And  now  was 
exactly  accomplished  what  our  Lord  had  some  time  since 
told  them  would  come  to  pass,  when  he  beheld  the  city 
tftcl  wept  over  it,  sajjing,  if  thou  hadst  knoivn.,  even  thou  at 
least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  that  belong  unto  thy  peace! 
but  now  they  are  hidden  from  thine  eyes.  For  the  days 
shall  come  upon  thee^  that  thine  enemies  shall  cast  a  trench 
tibout  thee^  and  compass  thee  rounds  and  keep  thee  in  on 
bvery  side,  and  shall  lay  thee  even  with  the  groufid,  and 
thy  children  xvithin  thee^  because  thou  knowest  not  the 
time  of  thy  visitation.^  The  truth  is,  whoever  would  be 
at  the  pains  to  compare  what  our  Lord  has  said  concern- 
ing this  war  and  the  sackage  of  Jerusalem,''  with  the  ac- 
counts  given  of  them  by  Josephus^  Would  find  so  just  a 
fcofrespondehce  between  the  prophecy  and  the  success,  as 
would  tempt  hiih  to  think  that  the  historian  had  taken  his 
nieasures  as  much  from  our  Lord's  predictions  as  from 
the  event  of  things.  But  to  proceed  :  Terms  of  mercy 
ivere  offered  upon  surrender,  but  scornfully  rejected, 
which  exasperated  the  Roman  army  to  fall  on  with  great- 
er fierceness  and  severity.  And  now  God  and  man,  hea- 
■Veii  and  earth  seemed  to  fight  against  them.  Besides  the 
Roman  army  without,  and  the  irreconcilable  factions  and 
disorders  within,  a  ''famine  (hastened  by  those  vast  multi«. 
tiides  that  flocked  to  the  passover)  raged  so  horribly  with- 
in the  city,  that  they  took  rnore  care  to  prey  upon  one 
another,  and  to  plunder  their  provisions,  than  how  to  de- 
fend themselves  against  the  common  enemy  :  thousands 

U  i'b'ui.  \.  6.  K«(j>.  X'i.  p.  936.  _ iv  Luke  xix.  41,  42,  43, 44. 

jpJJj^ov  TJiii  (n.-?'^v*s-/v  Tj  /£,  TTg^fnTiv  TK  (^wTjig®'  iifjim  o/xoKoyiiTit^-    Euseb.  H.  £cch 
1-  %  c.  7.  p.  81.        y  Ibid,  Kt.?.  AjS'.p.  9o7.  &  1.  7.  Y.^-  a.  p.  954. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON.  213 

Were  starved  for  want  of  food,  who  died  so  fast,  that  they 
were  not  capable  of  performmg  to  them  the  last  offices  of 
humanity,  but  were  forced  to  throw  them  upon  common 
heaps  ;  nay,  were  reduced  to  that  extremity,  that  some 
offered  violence  to  all  the  laws  of  nature,  among  which 
was  ^Mary  the  daughter  of  Eleazar,  who  being  undone 
by  the  soldiers,  and  no  longer  able  to  bear  the  force  and 
rage  of  hunger,  boiled  her  sucking  child  and  eat  him. 
So  plainly  had  our  Lord  foretold  the  daughters  of  Jeru- 
salem^ that  the  days  were  comings  in  the  which  they  should 
say,  blessed  are  the  barren,  and  the  wombs  that  never  bare, 
and  the  paps  which  never  gave  suck. 

7.  Titus  went  on  with  the  siege,  and  finding  that  no 
methods  either  of  kindness  or  cruelty  would  work  upon 
this  obstinate  generation  of  men,  gave  order  that  all 
things  should  be  made  ready  for  a  storm.  Having  gain*, 
ed  the  tower  of  Antonia,  the  Jews  fled  to  the  temple  which 
was  hard  by,  the  "outer  gates  and  porches  whereof  were 
immediately  set  on  fire,  the  Jews  like  persons  stupified 
and  amazed,  never  endeavouring  to  quench  it.  Titus, 
the  sweetness  of  whose  nature  ever  enclined  him  to  pity 
and  compassion,  was  greatly  desirous  to  have  spared  the 
people  and  saved  the  temple.  But  all  in  vain  ;  an  obscure 
soldier  threw  a  firebrand  into  the  chambers  that  were 
about  the  temple,  which  presently  took  fire,  and  though 
the  general  ran  aiid  stormed,  and  commanded  to  put  it 
out,  yet  so  great  was  the  clamour  and  confusion,  that  his 
orders  could  not  be  heard ;  and  when  they  were  it  was 
too  late,  the  conquering  and  triumphant  flames  prevailing 
in  spite  of  all  opposition,  and  making  their  way  with  so 
fierce  a  ''rage,  as  if  they  threatened  to  bum  up  Mount 
Sion  to  the  very  roots.  So  effectually  did  our  Saviour's 
commination  take  place,  who  told  his  disciples,  when 
they  admired  the  stately  and  magnificent  buildings  of  the 
temple.  Verily  I  say  unto  yoii,  there  shall  not  be  left  here 
one  stone  upon  another,  that  shall  not  be  thrown  down. 
And  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  verify  our  Lord's 
prediction,  Turnus  Rufus  was  commanded  to  plow  up 

e  K«*.  ««'.  ubi  supr.     a  lb.  Ks*.  x,5'  «>'.  &c.  p.  956.    b  Ibid.  Ks*  .k/.  p.  959. 


214.  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON. 

the  very  foundations  of  it.  How  sad  a  sight  must  it  needs 
be  to  behold  all  things  hurled  into  a  mixture  of  blood, 
smoke,  and  flames !  the  Jews  were  slain  like  sheep  or 
dogs,  and  many,  to  prevent  the  enemy's  sword,  volun- 
tarily leapt  into  the  fire  ;  the  'number  of  them  that  pe- 
rished in  this  siege  amounted  to  no  less  than  eleven  hun- 
dred thousand,  besides  ninety- seven  thousand  that  were 
made  slaves ;  the  infinite  multitudes  that  from  all  parts 
had  flocked  to  the  feast  of  the  passover,  and  were  b}^  the 
Roman  army  croAvded  up  within  the  city,  rendering  the 
account  not  improbable. 

8.  Such  was  the  period  of  the  Jewish  church  and  state ; 
thus  fell  Jerusalem  (by  far  the  most  eminent  city  not  of 
Judea  only,  but  of  the  whole  east,  as  ''Pliny  himself  con- 
fesses) notwithstanding  its  antiquity,  wealth  and  strength, 
after  it  had  stood  from  the  time  of  David,  1579  years. 
And  memorable  it  is,  that  this  fatal  siege  began  a  little 
before  the  passover,  about  that  very  time  when  they  had 
so  barbarously  treated  and  put  to  death  the  Son  of  God. 
So  exact  a  proportion  does  the  Divine  Justice  sometimes 
observe  in  the  retribution  of  its  vengeance.  A  fate  not 
only  predicted  by  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  but  lately 
presignified  by  immediate  ''prodigies  and  signs  from  hea- 
ven, A  blazing  comet  in  the  fashion  of  a  sword,  hung 
directly  over  the  city  for  a  whole  year  together.  In  the 
feast  of  unleavened  bread,  a  little  before  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war,  at  nine  of  the  clock  of  the  night,  a  light  sud- 
denly shined  out  between  the  altar  and  the  temple,  as 
bright  as  if  it  had  been  noon-day.  About  the  same  time 
a  heifer,  as  she  was  led  to  sacrifice,  brought  forth  a  lamb 
in  the  very  midst  of  the  temple.  The  east  gate  of  the  inner 
part  of  the  temple,  all  of  massy  brass,  and  which  twenty 
men  could  hardly  shut,  after  it  had  been  fast  locked  and 
barred,  was  at  night  seen  to  open  of  its  oivn  accord.  Cha- 
riots and  armies  were  beheld  in  the  air,  all  in  their  mar- 
tial posture,  and  prepai'ing  to  surround  the  city.  At  Pen- 
tecost, when  the  priests  entered  into  the  inner  temple, 

c  Ibid.Ksp.  ui.  p.  968.  dNat.  Hist.  1. 5.  c.  14.  p.  80.  e  Joseph,  ubi. 

sup.  1.  7. Kef.  -Kd.  p.  960. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON.  215 

they  first  perceived  a  noise  and  motion,  and  immediately 
heard  a  voice  that  said,  ^uruQctivcjuiv  j/7s;3-£»,  JLet  us  depart 
hence.  And  four  years  before  ever  the  war  began,  Avhile 
all  things  were  peaceable  and  secure,  one  Jesus,  a  plain 
counny  fellow,  pronounced  many  dreadful  woes  against 
the  temple,  the  city,  and  the  people,  wherein  he  conti- 
nued, especially  at  festival  times,  notwithstanding  all  the 
cruelties  used  towards  him  for  seven  years  together, 
when  some  made  a  shift  todespatchhim  by  a  violent  death. 
But  alas,  an  angel  itself  cannot  stop  men  that  are  riding 
post  towards  their  own  destruction.  So  little  will  warn- 
ings, or  threatnings  or  miracles  signify  with  them,  whom 
Heaven  hath  once  given  up  to  an  incurable  infatuation/ 
9.  But  it  is  high  time  to  return  and  inquire,  in  the 
midst  of  this  sad  and  calamitous  state  of  things,  what  be- 
came of  St.  Simeon  and  the  Christians  of  that  place.  And 
of  them  we  find,  that  being  timely  warned  by  the  caution 
which  our  Lord  had  given  them,  that  when  tJiey  shoula 
see  Jerusalem  compassed  with  armies^  and  the  abomina- 
tion of  desolation  (that  is  the  Roman  army)  standing  in  the 
holy  place ^  they  should  then  jiee  into  the  moimtains,  be- 
take themselves  to  some  obscure  place  of  refuge :  and 
having  been  lately  commanded  by  a  particular  ^revelation 
communicated  to  some  pious  and  good  men  among 
them  (which  says  Epiphanius  was  done  by  the  ministry 
of  an  angel)  to  leave  Jerusalem  and  go  to  Pella,  they 
universally  withdrew  themselves,  and  seasonably  retreat- 
ed thither,  as  to  a  little  Zoar  from  the  flames  of  Sodom, 
and  so  not  one  perished  in  the  common  ruin.  This  Pella 
was  a  little  town  in  Coelo- Syria  beyond  Jordan,  deriving 
its  name  probably  from  Pella,  a  city  of  ?>  'acedonia,  as 
being  founded  and  peopled  by  the  Macedonians  of  Alex- 
ander's army,  who  sat  down  in  Asia.  That  its  inhabi- 
tants were  Gentiles,  it  is  plain,  in  that  the  ''Jews,  under 
Alexander  Jann^eus  their  king,  sacked  it,  because  they 
would  not  receive  the  rites  of  their  religion.     And  God, 

W  QitiTig^O!  yim  TO.  QenTngict,  TBC  J'  i^ur'  ivc/a?  j  xaxav  ul^itpifuy  dvo».-a/At/KC.  Jo- 
seph, loc.  c.tat.  g  Ev.seb.I.  3.  c.  5.  p.  75.  Epiph.  Hjeres.  xxix.  p  58, 
H2eves.  xxx.  p.  59.  de  Pond.  &  mens-  p.  537.  h  Joseph.  Antiq.  Jud.  I.  13. 
c.  23.  p.  462. 


gl6  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON. 

it  is  like  on  purpose,  directed  the  Christians  hither,  that 
they  might  be  out  of  the  reach  of  the  besom  of  destruc- 
tion that  was  to  sweep  away  the  Jews  wherever  it  came. 
Nor  was  it  a  less  remarkable  instance  of  the  care  and 
tenderness  of  the  Divine  Providence  over  them,    that 
when  Cestius  Gallus  had  besieged  Jerusalem,  on  a  sud- 
den he  should  unexpectedly  break  up  the  siege,  at  once 
giving  them  warning  of  their  danger,  and  an  opportunity 
to  escape.     How  long  St.  Simeon  and  the  church  conti- 
nued in  this  little  sanctuary,  and  when  they  returned  to 
Jerusalem,  appears  not.     If  I  might  conjecture,  I  should 
place  their  return  about  the  beginning  of  Trajan's  reign, 
when  the  fright  being  sufficiently  over,  and  the  hatred  and 
severity  of  the  Romans  assuaged,  they  might  come  back 
with  more  safety.    Certain  it  is,  that  they  returned  before 
'Adrian's  time,  who  forty-seven  years  after  the  devasta- 
tion coming  to  Jerusalem  in  order  to  its  reparation,  found 
there  a  few  houses,  and  a  little  church  of  Christians  built 
upon  Mount  Sion,  in  that  very  place  where  that  upper 
room  was,  into  which  the  disciples  went  up  when  they 
returned  from  our  Lord's  ascension.     Here  the  Chris- 
tians who  were  returned  from  Pella,  kept  their  solemn 
assemblies,  and  were   so  renowned  for  the  flourishing 
state  of  their  religion,  and  the  eminency  of  their  miracles, 
that  Aquila,  the  emperor's  kinsman,  and  whom  he  had 
made  governor  and  overseer  of  the  rebuilding  of  the 
city,  being  convinced,  embraced  Christianity.     But  still 
pursuing  his  old  magic  and  astrological  studies,  notwith- 
standing the  frequent  admonitions  that  were  given  him, 
he  was  cast  out  of  the  Church.   Which  he  resented  as  so 
great  an   affront,   that  he  apostatized  to  Judaism,   and 
afterwards  translated  the  Bible  into  Greek.  But  to  return 
back  to  Simeon  :  confident  we  may  be  that  he  adminis- 
tered his  province  with  all  diligence  and  fidelity,  in  the 
discharge  whereof  God  was  pleased  to  preserve  him  as 
a  ])crson  highly  useful  to  his  church,  to  a  very  great  age, 
till  the  middle  of  Trajan's  reign,  when  he  was  brought 
to  give  his  last  testimony  to  his  religion,  and  upon  a  very 
slight  pretence. 

i  Epiph.  de  Pond,  h  Mens.  ibid. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON.  zi7 

10.   The  Romcin  emperors  were  infinitely  jealous  of 
their  new  established  sovereignty,  and  of  any  that  might 
seem  to  be  corrivals  with  them,  especially   in  Palestine 
and  the  eastern  parts.     For  an  ancient  and  constant  tra- 
dition  (as  appears  besides  Josephus,  both  from  Sueto- 
nius  and  Tacitus)  had  been  entertained  throughout  the 
east,  that  out  of  Judea  should  arise  a  prince,  that  should 
be  the  great  monarch  of  the  world.     Which,  though  Jo. 
sephusto  ingratiate  himself  with  the  Romans,  flatteringly 
applied  to  Vespasian,  yet  did  not  this  quiet  their  minds, 
but  that  still  they  beheld  all  that  were  of  the  line  of  Da. 
vid  with  a  jealous  eye.''     This  made  Domitian,  Vespa- 
sian's son,  resolve  to  destroy  all  that  were  of  the  blood 
K)yal  of  the  house  of  Judah ;    upon  which  account  two 
nephews  of  St.  Jude,  one  of  the  brothers  of  our  Lord, 
were  brought  before  him,  and  despised  by  him  for  their 
poverty  and  meanness,  as  persons  very  unlikely  to  stand 
competitors  for  a    crown.     The  very  same  indictment 
was  brought  against  our  ancient  bishop  ;  for  some  of  the 
sects  of  the  Uews  not  able  to  bear  his  activity  and  zeal  in 
the  cause  of  his  religion,  and  finding  nothing    else  to 
charge  upon  him,  accused  him  to  Atticus,  at  that  time 
consular  legate  of  Syria,  for  being  of  the  posterity  of  the 
kings  of  Judah,   and  withal  a  Christian,     Hereupon  he 
was  apprehended  and  brought  before  the  proconsul,  who 
commanded  him  for  several  days  together  to  be  wrecked 
with  the  most  exquisite  torments.     A 11  which  he  under- 
went  with  so  composed  a  mind,  so  unconquerable  a  pa- 
tience, that  the  proconsul  and  all  that  were  present  were 
amazed  to  see  a  person  of  so  great   age   able  to  endure 
such  and  so  many   tortures  :   at  last  he  was  commanded 
to  be  crucified.     He  suffered  in  the  hundred  and  twen- 
tieth year  of  his   age,    and   in   the  tenth  year  of  Tra- 
jan's  reign,   Ann.    Chr.    107    (the  Alexandrina    Chro- 

til  zy.  TKTK  uiyt9iv  '"ixSxiiK  QyuCr.vcu  iiuy/^c'i  nAhty.  CiiJ'on  Alexaiidr.  ad  Ann.  1. 
Olympiad.  cc\iii.  Indict,  xv.  Vespas.  V.  p.  586.  eadem  habetde  Domitian  ad 
An.  1.  Olymp.  ccxviii.  Ind.  V.  Damit.  xiii.  p.  5?0.  1  Evreeb.  k  3.  c.  52-  p. 

103.  104. 

E  e 


218  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  SIMEON. 

nicon""  places  it  Traj.  7,  Ann.  Chr.  as  appears  by 
the  consuls,  104,  though  as  doubtful  of  that,  he 
places  it  again  in  the  following  year)  after  he  had  sat 
bishop  of  Jerusalem  (computing  his  succession  from 
St.  James's  martyrdom)  forty-three  or  forty-four  years ; 
"Petavius  makes  it  no  less  than  sixty-seven,  though  Ni- 
cephorus,  patriarch  of  Constantinople  (probably  by  a  mis- 
take of  the  figure)  assigns  him  but  twenty-three.  A 
longer  portion  of  time  than  a  dozen  of  his  immediate 
successors  were  able  to  make  up,  God  probably  length- 
ening out  his  life,  that  as  a  skilful  and  faithful  pilot  he 
might  steer  and  conduct  the  affairs  of  that  church  in  those 
dismal  and  stormy  days. 

m  An.  4.  Olymp.  ccxx.  Irnl.  I.  p.  594.        n  Animadv.  ad  Epiph.  Hsres.  liv" 
p.  266. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS, 

BISHOP  OF  ANTIOCH. 


His  original  unknown.  Called  Theophoi-us,  and  why.  The  story  of  his 
being  taken  up  into  onr  Saviour's  arms  refuted.  His  apostolic  edu- 
cation. St.  John's  disciple.  His  being  made  bishop  of  Antioch.  The 
eminency  of  that  see.  The  order  of  his  succession  stated.  His  pru- 
dent government  of  that  church.  The  tradition  of  his  appointiug  An- 
tiphonal  hymns  by  revelation.  Trajan's  persecuting  the  church  at 
Antioch.  His  discourse  with  Ignatius.  Ignatius's  cruel  usage.  His 
sentence  passed.  His  being  transmitted  to  Rome  :  and  why  sent  so 
far  to  his  execution.  His  arrival  at  Smyrna,  and  meeting  with  St. 
Polycarp.  His  epistles  to  several  churches.  His  coming  to  Troas, 
and  epistles  thence.  His  arnval  at  Porto  Romano.  Met  on  the  way 
by  the  Christians  at  Rome.  His  earnest  desire  of  martyrdom.  His 
praying  for  the  prosperity  of  the  church.  The  time  of  his  passion. 
His  being  thrown  to  wild  beasts.  What  kind  of  punishment  that 
among  the  Romans.  The  collection  of  his  remains,  and  their  trans- 
portation to  Antioch  ;  and  the  great  honours  done  to  them.  The 
great  plenty  of  them  in  the  church  of  Rome.  Trajan's  surceasing  the 
persecution  against  the  Christians.  The  dreadful  earthquakes  hap- 
pening at  Antioch.  Ignatius's  admirable  piety.  His  general  solici- 
tude for  the  preservation  and  propagation  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
as  an  apostle.  His  care,  diligence,  and  fidelity  as  a  bishop.  His  pa- 
tience and  fortitude  as  a  martyr.  His  epistles.  Polycai'p's  commen- 
dation of  them- 


1.  FINDING  nothing  recorded  concerning  the  coun- 
try or  parentage  of  this  holy  man,  I  shall  not  build  upon 
mere  fancy  and  conjecture.  He  is  ordinarily  styled  both 
by  himself  and  others  Theophorus,  which  tliough  like 


Si20  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

Justus  it  be  oft  no  more  than  a  common  epithet,  yet  is  it 
sometimes  used  as  a  proper  name.  It  is  written  accord- 
ing to  the  difterent  accents,  either  eic<fo^&^  and  then  it 
notes  a  divine  person,  a  man  whose  soul  is  full  of  God, 
and  all  holy  and  divine  qualities,  o  t  xg/rcv  iv  ri  -^ux^  ^eg/cfsgw, 
as  Ignatius  himself  is  said  to  explain  it ;  or  er:^c^&,  and 
so  in  a  passive  signification  it  implies  one  that  is  born  or 
carried  by  God.  And  in  this  latter  sense  he  is  said  to 
have  derived  the  title  from  our  Lord's  taking  him  up  into 
his  arms.  For  thus  we  are  told,  that  he  was  that  very 
child  whom  our  Saviour""  took  into  his  arms,  and  set  in 
the  midst  of  his  disciples,  as  the  most  lively  instance  of 
innocency  and  humility.  And  this  affirmed  (if  number 
might  carry  it)  not  only  by  the  ^Greeks  in  their  public 
rituals,  by  "Metaphrastes,  '^Nicephorus,  and  others,  but 
(as  the  primate  of  Armagh^  observes  from  the  manu- 
scripts in  his  own  possession)  by  two  Syriac  writers, 
more  ancient  than  they.  But  how^  confidently  or  generally 
soever  it  be  reported,  the  story  at  best  is  precarious  and 
uncertain,  ndt  to  say  absolutely  false  and  groundless. 
Sure  lam  ^St.  Chrysostom  (who  had  far  better  oppor- 
tunities of  knowing  than  they)  expressly  affirms  of  Igna- 
tius, that  he  never  saw  our  Saviour,  or  enjoyed  any  fa- 
miliarity or  converse  with  him. 

2.  In  his  younger  years  he  w^as  brought  up  under 
apostolical  institution :  so  ^Chrysostom  tells  us,  that  he 
\vas  intimately  conversant  with  the  apostles,  educated  and 
nursed  up  by  them,  every  where  at  hand,  and  made  par- 
taker fKTSi.  i,  iTTCf^'rav,  both  of  their  familiar  discourses,  and 
more  secret  and  uncommon  mysteries.  Which  though 
it  is  probable  he  means  of  his  particular  conversation 
with  St.  Peter  and  Paul,  yet  some  of  the  forementioned 
authors,  and  not  they  only,  but  the  ''Acts  of  his  JNiartyr- 
dom,  written  as  is  supposed  by  some  present  at  it,  fur- 

a  Mark  ix.  36.  Malt,  xviii  2,  3,  4. 

b  Msnaeon  Grpecor.   Tv  sixrrM  i«  AiKe/uC^. 

c  Metaplir.  ad  Deccmbr.  20.  Gra:c.  &  Lat.  apud  Cottier,  p.  991. 

d  Niccph.  H,  Eccl.l.  2.  c.  35.  p.  192.  e  Annot.  in  Ignat.  Act.  p.  37. 

f  "OVTa'C   <pi^mi'u.rtK  X-iKK^C^tl  GsO.^Sg®',    TClTig.        "SliTTI®^  ydg  iTI  KC/UtlS'tIt    [/(Orst'^^OW 

•WTO.     Men.  Grasc.  luc.  citat. 

g  Ibid. p.  499.  h  Act.  Igiiat.  p  1.  &  5.  Edit.  usserC 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS.  221 

thcr  assure  us,  that  he  was  St.  John's  disciple.     Being 
iiiUv  instructed  in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  he  was 
for  his  eminent  parts,  and  the  great  piety  of  his  life,  cho- 
sen to  be  bishop  of  Antioch  the  metropohs  of  Syria,  and 
the  most  famous   and  renowned  city   of  the  East ;  not 
more  remarkable  among-  foreign  writers  for  being  the 
Oriental  seat  of  the  Roman  emperors,  and  their  viceroys 
and  governors  ;  than  it  is  in  Ecclesiastics  for  its  eminent 
entertainment  of  the  Christian  faith,  its  giving  the  vene- 
rable title  of  Christians  to  the  disciples  of  the  holy  Jesus, 
and  St.  Peter's  first  and  peculiar  residence  in  this  place. 
When  the   Synod  of  'Constantinople  assembled   under 
Nectarius,    in  their  Synodical  epistle   to  the    Western 
bishops,  deservedly  call  it,  the  most  ancient  and  truhj 
apostolic  church  of  Antioch^  in  which  the  honourable  name 
o/Christians  did  Jirst  conimerice.     In  all  which  respects 
it  is  frequently  in  the  writings  of  the  church  by  a  proud 
kind  of  title  styled  eea'-nrax/f,  or  the  City  of  God.     That  Ig- 
natius was  constituted  bishop  of  this  church,  is  allowed 
on  all  hands,  though  as  to  the  time  and  order  of  his 
coming  to  it,  almost  the  same  difficulties  occur,  which  be- 
fore did  in  Clemens's  succession  to  the  see  of  Rome,  pos- 
sibly not  readily  to  be  removed  but  by  the  same  method 
of  solution,  easily  granted  in  this  case  by  '"Baroniu  shim- 
self,  and  some  other  writers  of  note  in  that  church.     I 
shall  not  need  to  prove  what  is  evident  enough  in   itself, 
and  plainly  acknowledged  by  the  ancients,  that  Peter 
and  Paul  planted  Christianity  in  this  city,  and  both  con- 
curred to  the  foundation  of  this  church,  the  one  apphing 
himself  to  the  Jews,  the  other  to  the  Gentiles.     And 
large  enough  was  the  vineyard  to  admit  the  joint  endea- 
vours of  these  two  great  planters  of  the  gospel,  it  being- 
a  vast  populous  city,  containing  at  that  time  according  to 
St.  Chrysostom's  computation  no  less  than  two  hundred 
thousand  souls.     But  the  apostles  (who  could  not  stay 
always  in  one  place)  being  called  off  to  the  ministry  of 
other  churches,  saw  it  necessary  to  substitute  others  in 
their  room,  the  one  resigning  his  trust  to  Euodius,  the 

i  Ap.  Theodora.  H.  Eccl.  I.  5.  c.  9.  p.  211. 

k  Ad  Ann.  45.  n.  14.  vid.  Ad.  Majt\ t.  Rom.  Feb.  1.  p.  88. 


22S  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

other  to  Ignatius.  Hence  in  the  Apostolic  Constitutions 
'Euodius  is  said  to  be  ordained  bishop  of  Antioch  by  St. 
Peter,  and  Ignatius  by  St.  Paul ;  till  Euodius  dying,  and 
the  Jewish  converts  being  better  reconciled  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, Ignatius  succeeded  in  the  sole  care  and  presidency 
over  that  church,  wherein  he  might  possibly  be  after- 
wards confirmed  by  Peter  himself.  In  which  respect 
probably  .the  author  of  the  "*  Alexandrine  Chronicon  meant 
it,  when  he  affirms  that  Ignatius  was  constituted  bishop 
of  Antioch  by  the  apostles.  By  this  means  he  may  be 
said  both  immediately  to  succeed  the  apostle,  as  "Origen, 
"Eusebius,  ^Athanasius,  and  ''Chiysostom  affirm,  and 
withal  to  be  the  next  after  Euodius,  as  ""St.  Hierom,  'So- 
crates, ^Metaphrastes  and  others  place  him.  However 
Euodius  dying,  and  he  being  settled  in  it  by  the  apos- 
tles' hands,  might  be  justly  said  to  succeed  St.  Peter  ;  in 
which  sense  it  is  that  some  of  the  ancients  expressly 
affirm  him  to  have  received  his  consecration  from  St. 

Peter,    <f/«  t^  t£  //.tydK-i  ne7g«  Si^iSii  Tii;  «g;t''go«r[/v>if  Th   ;^«tg<v  ij'i^alo,    SayS 

"Theodoret;  and  so  their  own  "historian  relates  it,  that 
jPeter  coming  to  Antioch  in  his  passage  to  Rome,  and 
finding  Euodius  lately  dead,  committed  the  government 
of  it  to  Ignatius,  whom  he  made  bishop  of  that  place  : 
though  it  will  be  a  little  difficult  to  reconcile  the  times  to 
an  agreement  with  that  account. 

3.  Somewhat  above  forty  years  St.  Ignatius  continu- 
ed in  his  charge  at  Antioch,  (Nicephorus  patriarch  of 
Constantinople  assigns  him  but  four  years,  the  figure  f^ 
for  forty,  being  probably  through  the  carelessness  of 
transcribers  slipt  out  of  the  account)  in  the  midst  of  very 
stormy  and  tempestuous  times.  But  *he,  like  a  wise  and 
prudent  pilot,  sat  at  the  stern,  and  declined  the  dangers 
that  threatened  them  by  his  prayers  and  tears,  his  fast- 

1  Lib.  7.  c.  47.  p.  451.  m  Ad  Ann.  Tib.  XIX.  p,  526. 

n  OriR'.  Hon).  6.  in  Luc.  p.  214.         o  Euseb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  3.  c.  36.  p.  106. 

p  Atl)an.  de  Synod.  Arim.  &  Scleu.  p.  92?. 

q  Chrysost.  Inc.  cit.  p.  500.  r  Hier.de  script,  in  Ignat. 

s  Socr.  H.  Eccl.  1.  6.  C.8,  p.  313.       t  Melaphr.  ubi  siipr. 

u  De  Immulub.  Dialog-.  1.  p.  33.  Tom.  4. 

V  Jo  Malel  Chion.  1.  10.  ap  iisscr.  Not.  in  Epist.  ad  Antioch  pag.  lOr. 

w  Act.  Ignat.  p.  1,2. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS.  223 

ings  and  the  constancy  of  his  preaching,  and  those  inde- 
fatigable pains  he  took  among  them,  fearing  lest  any  of 
the  more  weak  and  unsettled  Christians  might  be  over- 
born with  the  storms  of  persecution.     Never  did  a  little 
calm  and  quiet  interval  happen,   but  he  rejoiced  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  church  :  though  as  to  himself  he  some- 
what impatiently  expected  and  longed  for  martyrdom, 
without  which  he  accounted  he  could  never  perfectly 
attain  to  the  love  of  Christ,  nor  fill  up  the  duty  and  mea- 
sures of  a  true  disciple,    which  accordingly  afterwards 
became  his  portion.     Indeed  as  to  the  particular  acts  of 
his  government,  nothing  memorable  is  recorded  of  him 
in  the  antiquities  of  the  church,  more  than  what  ''Socrates 
relates,  by  what  authority,  I  confess,  I  know  not)  that  he 
saw  a  vision,  wherein  he  heard  the  angels  with  alternate 
hymns  celebrating  the  honour  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  imi- 
tation whereof  he  instituted  the  way  of  Antiphonal  hymns 
in  the  church  of  Antioch,   which  thence   spread  itself 
over  the  whole  Christian  church.     Whether  this  story 
was   made  on  purpose  to  outvie  the  Arians  who  were 
wont  on  the  Sabbaths  and  Lord's  davs  to  sino:  alternate 
hymns  in  their  congregations,  with  some  tart  reflections 
upon  the  orthodox,  in^iomuch  that  Chrysostom  was  for- 
ced to  introduce  the  same  way  of  singing  into  the  ortho- 
dox assemblies :  or  whether  it  was  really  instituted  by 
Ignatius,  but  afterwards  grov/n  into  disuse,  I  will  not  say. 
Certain  it  is,  that  Flavianus  afterwards  bishop  of  Antioch 
in  the  reign  of  Constantius  is  ^said  to  have  been  the  first 
that  thus  established  the  quire,  and  appointed  David's 
psalms  to  be  sung  by  turns,  which  thence  propagated  it- 
self to  other  churches.     St.   Ambrose  was  the  first  that 
brought  it  into  the  western  church,  reviving  (says  the 
^historian)  the  ancient  institution  of  Ignatius,  long  dis- 
used among  the  Greeks.     But  to  return. 

4.  It  was  about  the  year  of  Christ  107.  When  Tra- 
jan  the  emperor,  swelled  with  his  late  victorv  over  the 
Scythians  and  the  Daci,  about  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign 
came  to  Antioch,  to  raa:ke  preparation  for  the  v/ar  which 


X  H.  Eccl.  loc.  citat.  y  Theodore!:,  H.  Ectl.  i,  2  c.  H  p.  lOr 

z  Sigebert.  Chr,  ad  Arin.Chr.  3Sr. 


224  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

he  was  resolved  to  make  upon  the  Parthians  and  Arme- 
nians. He  entered  the  city  with  the  pomps  and  solemni- 
ties of  a  triumph,  and  as  his  first  care  usually  was  about 
the  concernments  of  religion,  he  began  presently  to  in- 
quire into  that  affair.  Indeed  he  "looked  upon  it  as  an 
affront  to  his  other  victories  to  be  conquered  by  Chris- 
tians ;  and  therefore  to  make  this  religion  stoop,  had  al- 
ready commenced  a  persecution  against  them  in  other 
parts  of  the  empire,  which  he  resolved  to  carry  on  here. 
St.  Ignatius  (whose  solicitude  for  the  good  of  his  flock 
made  him  continually  stand  upon  his  guard)  thinking  it 
more  prudent  to  go  himself,  than  stay  to  be  sent  for,  of 
his  own  ^accord  presented  himself  to  the  emperor,  be- 
tween whom  there  is  said  to  have  passed  a  large  and  par- 
ticulai'  discourse,  the  empero,r  wondering  that  he  dared 
to  transgress  his  laws,  while  the  good  man  asserted  his 
own  innocency,  and  the  power  which  God  hath  given 
them  over  evil  spirits,  and  that  the  gods  of  the  Gentiles 
were  no  better  than  demons,  there  being  but  one  su- 
preme deity,  who  made  the  world,  and  his  only  begotten 
son  Jesus  Christ,  who  though  crucified  under  Pilate,  had 
yet  destroyed  him  that  had  the  power  of  sin,  that  is,  the 
Devil,  and  would  ruin  the  whole  power  and  empire  of 
the  daemons,  and  tread  it  under  the  feet  of  those,  who  car- 
ried  God  in  their  hearts.  The  issue  was,  that  he  was 
cast  into  prison,  where  (if  what  tlie  ''Greek  rituals  and 
some  others  report,  be  true)  he  was  for  the  constancy 
and  resolution  of  his  profession,  subjected  to  the  most 
severe  and  merciless  torments,  ^vhipped  with  piumbatas, 
scourges  with  leaden  bullets  at  the  end  of  them,  forced  to 
hold  fire  in  his  hands,  while  his  sides  were  burnt  with 
papers  dipt  in  oil,  his  feet  stood  upon  live  coals,  and  his 
flesh  was  torn  off  with  burning  pincers.  Having  by  an 
invincible  patience  overcome  the  malice  and  cruelty  of 
his  tormentors,  the  emperor  pronounced  the  ''final  sen- 
tence upon  him,  that  being  incurably  overrun  with  su* 
perstition,  he  should  be  carried  bound  by  soldiers  to 

a  Act.  ib.  p.  2.  b  Act.  Ign.  p.  3. 

r  Tc  ''y-^^y  "'  ,*"■'■  T^  Cix-iuS.  d  Act.  Martyr,  p.  4. 


The  life  of  st.  ignatius.  225 

Rome,  and  there  thrown  as  a  prey  to  wild  beasts.  The 
good  man  heartily  rejoiced  at  the  fatal  decree,  I  thank 
thee,  O  Lord  (said  he)  that  thou  hast  condescended  thus 
perfectly  to  honour  me  ivitJi  thy  love,  and  hast  thought  me 
worthy  w'ltli  thy  apostle  Paul  to  be  hound  with  iron  chains. 
With  that  he  chcarfiilly  embraced  his  chains,  and  having 
fervently  prayed  for  his  church,  and  with  tears  recom- 
mended it  to  the  divine  care  and  providence,  he  deliver- 
ed up  himself  into  the  hands  of  his  keepers,  that  were 
appointed  to  transport  him  to  the  place  of  execution. 

5.  It  may  justly  seem  strange,  audit  was  that  which 
puzzled  the  great  ^Scaliger,  why  he  should  be  sent  so 
vast  a  way  from  Antioch  in  Syria  to  be  martyred  at 
Rome.  Whereof  these  probable  accounts  may  be  ren- 
dered. First,  it  was  usual  with  the  governors  of  pro- 
vinces, where  the  malefactors  were  more  then  ordinarily 
eminent,  either  for  the  quality  of  their  persons,  or  the 
nature  of  their  crimes,  to  send  them  to  Rome,  that  their 
punishment  might  be  made  exemplary  in  the  eye  of  the 
world.  Secondly  his  enemies  w^ere  not  willing  he  should 
suffer  at  home,  where  he  was  too  much  honoured  and 
esteemed  already,  and  where  his  death  would  but  raise 
him  into  a  higher  veneration  with  the  people,  and  settle 
their  minds  in  a  firmer  belief  of  that  faith,  which  he  had 
taught  them,  and  which  they  then  saw  him  sealing  with 
his  blood.  Thirdly,  by  so  long  a  journey,  they  hoped 
that  in  all  places  where  he  came,  men  would  be  more 
eftectually  terrified  from  embracing  that  religion,  which 
they  saw  so  much  distasted  and  resented  by  the  empe- 
ror, and  the  profession  whereof  could  not  be  purchased 
but  at  so  dear  a  rate  ;  besides  the  probability,  that  by  this 
usage  the  constancy  of  Ignatius  himself  might  be  bro- 
ken, and  he  forced  to  yield.  Fourthly,  they  designed 
to  make  the  good  man's  punishment  as  severe  and  hea- 
vy as  they  could,  and  therefore  so  contrived  it,  that 
there  might  be  a  concurrence  of  circumstances  to  render 
it  bitter  and  grievous  to  him.     His  great  age,  being  then 

c  Animadv.  ad.  Euseb.  Chron.  p.  207. 
r  f 


226  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

probably  above  fourscore  years  old,  the  vast  length  and 
tediousness  of  the  journey,  which  was  not  a  little  in- 
creased by  the  iM*«§'T«gc<  d-wt/xc/ Tit  <fgow«  as  *^  St.  Chrysostom 
observes,  their  going  the  furthest  way  about,  for  they 
went  not  the  direct  passage  to  Rome,  but  by  infinite 
windings,  diverted  from  place  to  place)  the  trouble  and 
difficulty  of  the  passage,  bad  at  all  times,  but  much 
worse  now  in  winter,  the  want  of  all  necessary  conve- 
niences and  accomodations  for  so  aged  and  infirm  a  per- 
son, the  rude  and  merciless  usage  of  his  keepers,  who 
treated  him  with  all  ruggedness  and  inhumanity  :  From 
Syria  even  to  Rome  both  by  Sea  and  land  I  fight  xvith 
beasts,  night  a?id  day  I  am  chained  to  ten  leopards^  [which 
is  my  military  guard)  rvho^  the  kinder  I  am  to  them,  are 
the  more  cruel  and  fierce  to  me^  as  ^  himself  complains. 
Besides  what  was  dearer  to  him  then  all  this,  his  credit 
and  reputation  might  be  in  danger  to  suffer  with  him, 
seeing  at  so  great  a  distance  the  Romans  were  generally 
more  likely  to  understand  him  to  suffer  as  a  malefactor 
for  some  notorious  crime,  then  as  a  martyr  for  religion, 
and  this  ^  Metaphrastes  assures  us,  was  one  particular 
end  of  his  sending  thither.  Not  to  say  that  beyond  all 
this,  the  Divine  Providence  (which  knows  how  to  bring 
good  out  of  evil,  and  to  overrule  the  designs  of  bad 
men  to  wise  and  excellent  purposes)  might  the  rather 
permit  it  to  be  so,  that  the  leading  so  great  a  man  so  f^r 
in  triumph,  might  make  the  faith  more  remarkable  and 
illustrious,  that  he  might  have  the  better  opportunity  to 
establish  and  confirm  the  Christians,  '  who  flocked  to 
him  from  all  parts  as  he  came  along  ;  and  by  giving 
them  the  example  of  a  generous  virtue,  arm  them  with 
the  stronger  resolution  to  die  for  their  religion,  and  es- 
pecially that  he  might  seal  the  truth  of  his  religion  at 
Rome,  where  his  death  might  be  Si^MKhjcs^ -^ivtn^iioi;,  (as 
Chrisostom  ^  speaks)  a  tutor  of  piety,  and  teach  K^iinv  <?><- 
wr6f«ly,the  city  that  was  so  famous  for  arts  and  wisdom,  a 

i  Homil.  cit.  p.  504, 

%  Epist.  ad.  Rom.  p.  23.  &  ap.  Euseb.  1.  3.  c.  36.  p.  107. 

h  Mai'tyr.  ubj.supr.  p.995i^        i  Vid.  Chrysost.  Honiil.cit.  pag.505, 

k.  Ibid.  .    ■-  ■-  -  ■ 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.   IGNATIUS.  227 

new  and  better  philosophy  then  they  had  learned  before. 
To  all  which  may  be  added,  that  this  was  done  not  by 
the  provincial  governor,  who  had  indeed  power  of  exe- 
cuting capital  punishments  within  his  own  province 
(which  seems  to  have  been  the  main  ground  of  Scaliger's 
scruple)  but  immediately  by  the  emperor  himself,  whose 
pleasure  and  command  it  Avas  that  he  should  be  sent  to 
Rome  ;  whither  we  must  now  follow  him  to  his  martyr- 
dom :  in  the  account  whereof  we  shall  for  the  main  keep 
to  the  acts  of  it,  written  in  all  probability  by  Philo  and 
Agathopus,  the  companions  of  his  journey,  and  present 
at  his  passion  ;  two  ancient  versions  whereof  the  incom- 
parable bishop  Usher  first  recovered  and  published  to 
the  world. 

6.  Being  "  consigned  to  a  guard  of  ten  soldiers,  he 
took  his  leave  of  his  beloved  Antioch  (and  a  sad  parting 
no  doubt  there  was  between  him  and  his  people ;  who 
were  to  see  his  face  no  more')  and  was  conducted  on  foot 
to  Seleucia,  a  port  town  of  Syria,  about  sixteen  miles 
distant  thence,  the  very  place  whence  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas set  sail  for  Cyprus.  Here  going  aboard,  after  a 
tedious  and  difficult  voyage  they  arrived  at  Smyrna,  a 
famous  city  of  Ionia,  where  they  were  no  sooner  set  on 
shore,  but  he  went  to  salute  St.  Polycarp,  bishop  of  the 
place,  his  old  fellow  pupil  under  St.  John  the  apostle. 
Joyful  was  the  meeting  of  these  tw-o  holy  men,  St.  Poly- 
carp being  so  far  from  being  discouraged,  that  he  re- 
joiced in  the  other's  chains,  and  earnestly  pressed  him 
to  a  firm  and  final  perseverance.  Hither  came  in  the 
country  round  about,  especially  the  bishops,  presby- 
ters and  deacons  of  the  Asian  churches,  to  behold  so 
venerable  a  sight,  to  partake  of  the  holy  martyr's  pray- 
ers and  blessing,  and  to  encourage  him  to  hold  on  to  his 
consummation.  To  requite  whose  kindness,  and  for 
their  further  instruction  and  establishment  in  the  faith, 
he  wrote  *"  letters  from  hence  to  several  churches,  one 
to  the  Ephesians,  \\'herein  he  commends  Onesimus  their 

i  Act.  Ignat  pag.  5.       m  Euseb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  5.  c.  36.  p.  107. 


228  THE  LIFE   OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

bishop  for  his  singular  charity  ;  another  to  the  Magnp,* 
sians,  a  city  seated  upon  the  river  Meander,  which  lie 
sent  by  Damas  their  bishop,  Bassus  and  Apollonius, 
presbyters,  and  Sotio  deacon  of  that  church ;  a  third  to 
the  Trallians  by  Polybius  their  bishop,  wherein  he  par- 
ticularly presses  them  to  subjection  to  their  spiritual 
guides,  and  to  avoid  those  pestilent  heretical  doctrines 
that  were  then  risen  in  the  church.  A  fourth  he  wrote 
to  the  Christians  at  Rome,  to  acquaint  them  with  his  pre- 
sent state,  and  passionate  desire  not  to  be  hindered  in  that 
course  of  martyrdom,  which  he  was  now  hastening  to 
accomplish. 

7.  His  keepers,  a  little  impatient  of  their  stay  at  Smyr- 
na, set  sail  for  Troas,  a  noted  city  of  the  lesser  Phrygia, 
not  far  from  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Troy  :  where  at 
his  arrival  he  was  not  a  little  refreshed  with  the  news 
that  he  received  of  the  persecution  ceasing  in  the  church 
of  Antioch.  Hither  several  churches  sent  their  mes- 
sengers to  visit  and  sahite  him,  and  hence  he  despatched 
two  epistles,  one  to  the  church  at  Philadelphia,  to  press 
them  to  love  and  unity,  and  to  stand  fast  in  the  truth  and 
simplicity  of  the  gospel,  the  other  to  the  church  of 
Smyrna,  from  whence  he  lately  departed,  which  he  sent, 
as  also  the  former,  by  Burrhus,  the  deacon,  whom  they 
and  the  Ephesians  had  sent  to  wait  upon  him  ;  and  to- 
gether with  that  (as  "  Eusebius  informs  us)  he  wrote 
privately  to  St.  Polycarp,  particularly  recommending  to 
him  the  care  and  oversight  of  the  church  of  Antioch, 
for  which  as  a  vigilant  pastor  he  could  not  but  have  a 
tender  and  very  dear  regard  ;  though  very  learned  men 
(but  certainly  without  any  just  reason)  think  this  not  to 
have  been  a  distinct  epistle  from  the  former,  but  jointly 
directed  and  intended  to  St.  Polycarp  and  his  church 
of  Smyrna.  Which  however  it  be,  they  conclude  it  as 
certain  that  the  epistle  to  St.  Polycarp  now  extant,  is 
none  of  it,  as  in  which  nothing  of  the  true  temper  and 
spirit  of  Ignatius  does  appear,  while  others  of  great  note 

n  I-oc.  cjtp  .  lOT, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS.  229 

not  improbably  contend  for  it  as  genuine  and  sincere. 
From  Troas  they  sailed  to  Neapolis,  a  maritime  town  of 
Macedonia,  thence  to  Phiiippi,  a  Roman  colony''  (the 
very  same  journey  which  St.  Paul  had  gone  before 
him,)  where  (as  "  St.  Polycarp  intimates  in  his  epistle  to 
that  church)  they  w^re  entertained  with  all  inuiginable 
kindness  and  courtesy,  and  conducted  forwards  in  their 
journey.  Hence  they  passed  on  foot  through  Mace- 
donia and  Epirus,  till  they  came  to  Epidamnum,  a  city 
ofDalmatia,  where  again  taking  ship  they  sailed  through 
the  Adriatic,  and  arrived  at  Rhegium  a  port  town  in 
Italy,  whence  they  directed  their  course  through  the 
Tyrhcnian  sea  to  Puteoli,  Ignatius  desiring  (if  it  might 
have  been  granted)  thence  to  have  gone  by  land,  that  he 
might  have  traced  the  same  way,  by  which  St  Paul 
w^ent  to  Rome.  After  a  day  and  a  night's  stay  at  Puteoli, 
a  prosperous  wind  quickly  carried  them  to  the  Roman 
port,  the  great  harbour  and  station  for  their  navy,  built 
near  Ostia,  at  the  mouth  of  T^ber,  about  sixteen  miles 
from  Rome,  whither  the  holy  martyr  longed  to  come,  as 
much  desirous  to  be  at  the  end  of  his  race,  as  his  keep- 
ers weary  of  their  voyage,  were  to  be  at  the  end  of  their 
journey. 

8.  The  Christians  at  Rome,  daily  expecting  his  arrival, 
were  come  out  to  meet  and  entertain  him,  and  accor- 
dingly received  him  with  an  equal  resentment  of  jo) 
and  sorrow.  Glad  they  were  of  the  presence  and  com- 
pany of  so  great  and  good  a  man,  but  quickly  found  their 
joy  allayed  with  the  remembrance,  how  soon,  and  bv 
how  severe  a  death  he  was  to  be  taken  from  them  :  and 
when  some  of  them  did  but  intimate,  that  possibly  the 
people  might  be  taken  off  from  desiring  his  death,  he 
expressed  a  pious  indignation,  entreating  them  to  cast 
no  rubs  in  his  way,  nor  do  any  thing  that  might  hinder 
him,  now  he  was  hastening  to  his  crown.  Being  con- 
ducted to  Rome,  he  was  presented  to  the  praefect  of  the 
city,  and  as  it  is  probable,  the  emperor's  letters  con- 
cerning him  were  dehvered.      In  the  mean  time  while 

o  Act  xvli.  11.  12.     p  Epist  Polycarp.  adThilip.  p.  13.  non.  I'onge  ab.  init. 


230  THE  LIFE  OF   ST.    IGNATIUS. 

things  were  preparing  for  his  martyrdom,  he  and  the 
brethren  that  resorted  to  him  improved  their  time  to 
pious  purposes;  he  prayed  with  them,  and  for  them, 
heartily  recommended  the  state  of  the  church  to  the 
care  and  protection  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  and  earnestly 
solicited  heaven,  that  it  would  stop  the  persecution  that 
was  begun,  and  bless  Christians  with  a  true  love  and 
charity  towards  one  another.  That  his  punishment 
might  be  the  more  pompous  and  public,  one  of  their 
solemn  festivals,  the  time  of  their  Saturnalia,  and  that 
part  of  it  when  they  celebrated  their  Sigillaria,  was 
pitched  on  for  his  execution  :  at  which  times  they  were 
wont  to -entertain  the  people  with  the  bloody  conflicts  of 
the  Gladiators,  and  the  hunting  of,  and  fighting  with 
wild  beasts.  Accordingly  on  the  thirteenth  of  the  Kalends 
of  January,  that  is,  December  20.  he  was  brought  out 
into  the  Amphitheatre,  and  according  to  his  own  fer- 
vent desire,  that  he  might  have  no  other  grave  but  the 
bellies  of  wild  beasts,  the  lions  were  let  loose  upon  him, 
whose  roaring  alarm  he  entertained  with  no  other  con- 
cernment, than  that  now  as  God's  own  corn  he  should 
be  ground  between  the  teeth  of  these  wild  beasts,  and 
become  white  bread  for  his  heavenly  Master.  The  lions 
were  not  long  doing  their  work,  but  quickly  despatched 
their  meal,  and  left  nothing  but  what  they  could  not  well 
devour,  a  few  hard  and  solid  bones.  This  throwing  of 
persons  to  wild  beasts  was  accounted  among  the  Romans, 
"hitcr  summa  supplicia,  and  was  never  used  but  for  very 
capital  oftcnces,  and  towards  the  vilest  and  most  despica- 
ble malefactors,  under  which  rank  they  beheld  the  Chris- 
tians, who  were  so  familiar!}^  destined  to  this  kind  of 
death,  that  (as  "'Tertullian  tells  us)  upon  any  trifling  and 
frivolous  pretence,  if  a  famine  or  an  earthquake  did  but 
happen,  the  common  outcry  was,  Christkmos  ad  leonesy 
Away  with  the  Christians  to  the  lions. 

9.  Among  other  Christians  that  were  mournful  spec- 
tators of  this  tragic  scene,  were  the  deacons  I  mention- 


q  Paul.  JC.  Sent.  lib.  5.  Tit.  23. 1-.  3.  J.  5,  ff.  ad  leg-.  Cornel,  de  Sicar.  &  Vc- 
ref.  r  Apolog,  c.  40.  p.  '^2-, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS.  231 

ed,  who  had  been  the  companions  of  his  journey,  who 
bore  not  the  least  part  in  the  sorrows  of  that  day.     And 
that  they  might  not  return  home  with  nothing  but  the  ac- 
count of  so  sad  a    story,   they  gathered  up   the   bones 
which  the  wild  beasts  had  spared,  and  transported  them 
to  Antioch,   where  they  were  joyfully  received,  and  ho- 
nourably entombed  in  the  cemetery  without  the  gate  that 
leads  to  Daphne."    A  passage  which  Chrysostom  accord- 
ing to  his  rhetorical  vein  elegantly  amplifies  as  the  great 
honour  and  treasure  of  that  place.     From  hence,  in  the 
reign  'of  Theodosius  they  were  by  his  command,    with 
mighty  pomp    and  solemnity  removed  to  the  Tych^eon 
within  the  city,  a  temple  heretofore  dedicated  to  the  pub- 
lic genius  of  the  city,  but  now  consecrated  to  the  memo- 
ry of  the  martyr.     And  for  their  translation  afterwards  to 
Rome,  and  the  miracles  said  to  be  done  by  them,  they 
that  are  further  curious  may  inquire.     For  indeed  I  am 
not  now  at  leisure  for  these  things.     But  I  can  direct  the 
reader  to  one  that  will  give  him  very  punctual  and  parti- 
cular Recount  of  them,  and  in  what  places  the  several 
parcels  of  his  reliques  are  bestowed  ;'*  no  less  than  five 
churches  in  Rome  enriched  with  them,  besides  others  in 
Naples,  Sicily,  France,  Flanders,  Germany,  and  indeed 
where  not.     And  verih'  but  that  some  men  have  a  very 
happy  faculty  at  doing  wonders  Ijy  multiplication,  a  man 
would  be  apt  to  wonder  how  a  few  bones  (and  they  were 
not  many  which  the  lions  spared)  could  be  able  to  serve 
so  many  several  churches.     I  could  likewise  tell  him  a 
long  story  of  the  various  travels  and  donations  of  St.  Ig- 
natius's  head,  and  by  what  good  fortune   it  came  at  last 
to  the  Jesuit's  college  at  Rome,  where  it  is  richlv  en- 
shrined, solemnly  and  religiously  worshipped,  but  that  I 
am  afraid  my  reader  would  give  me  no  thanks  for  my 
pains. 

10.  About  this  time,  or  a  little  before,   while  Trajan 
was  yet  at  Antioch,  he  stopped,  or  at  least  mitigated  the 

s  Act.  Ignat.  p.  8.  Met:iphr.  loc.  cit.  Men.  Grsec.  T«  k5'.  ju  lavaag.  Hieron, 
de  Script,  in  Ignat. 

t  Euagr.  H.  Ecc.  1. 1.  c.  16,  p.  274,  u  BoUand.  ad  dJew.  1.  Febr.  p. 

35.  &c.'  * 


232  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

prosecution  against  Christians  :  For  having  had  an  ac- 
count from  Pliny,''  the  proconsul  of  Bithynia  (whom  he 
had  employed  to  that  purpose)  concerning  the  innocency 
and  simplicity  of  the  Christians,  that  they  were  a  harm- 
less and  inoffensive  generation  ;  and  lately  received  a  let- 
ter from  Tiberianus,''  governor  of  Palestina  Prima,  where- 
in he  told  him  that  he  was  wearied  out  in  executing  the 
laws  against  the  Galilccans,  who  crowded  themselves  in 
such  multitudes  to  execution,  that  he  could  neither  by 
persuasions  nor  threatnings  keep  them  from  owning  them- 
selves to  be  Christians,  further  praying  his  majesty's  ad- 
vice in  that  affair  :  Hereupon  he  gave  command  that  no 
inquisition  should  be  made  after  the  Christians,  though  if 
any  of  them  offered  themselves,  execution  should  be 
done  upon  them.  So  that  the  fire  which  had  heretofore 
flamed  and  burnt  out,  began  now  to  be  extinguished  and 
enly  crept  up  and  down  in  private  corners.  There  are 
that  tell  us"  that  Trajan  having  he-ard  a  full  account  of  Ig- 
natius and  his  sufferings,  and  how  undauntedly  he  had 
undergone  that  bitter  death,  repented  of  what  he  had 
done,  and  was  particularly  moved  to  mitigate  and  relax 
the  persecution :  whereby  (as  Metaphrastes  observes) 
not  only  Ignatius's  life,  but  his  very  death  became 
fjtoxm  'ur^i^if®'  dyn^uv,  the  procurcr  of  great  peace  and  pros- 
perity, and  the  glory  and  establishment  of  the  Christian 
faith.  Some  not  improbably  conceive,  that  the  severe 
judgments  which  happened  not  long  after,  might  have  a 
peculiar  inffuence  to  dispose  the  emperor's  mind  to  more 
tenderness  and  pity  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  For 
during  his  abode  at  Antioch,  there  were  dreadful  and 
unusual  earthquakes,^'  fatal  to  other  places,  but  which  fell 
most  heavy  upon  Antioch,  at  that  time  filled  more  than 
ordinary  with  a  vast  army  and  confluence  of  people  from 
all  parts  of  the  world.     Among  thousands  that  died,  and 

V  Epist.  97.  I.  10.  Eiiseb.  I,  3.  c.  54.  p.  105.  J.  Malel.  Chron.  1.  11.  ap.  Usser. 
not.  ill.  Ignat.  Epist.  p.  43. 

w  Extut  ap.  Jo.  Malel.  loc.  cit.  ap.  Usser.  Appcn.  Ignat.  p.  9.  vid.  Excerpt, 
ex.  Jo.  Antioch.  a  Val.  edit.  p.  818. 

X  Sim.  Metaphr.  Martyr.  Ig-nai.  apud  Coteler.  p.  1002. 

y  Dio.  Cass.  Hist.  Rom.  1.  "68.  S.  Xiphil.  in  vit.  Traj.  p.  24P, 256,  251.  Jo. 
Malel.  Chro.  1.  10.  ubi  supr. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS.  233 

far  greater  numbers  that  were  maimed  and  wounded, 
Pedo,  the  consul,  lost  his  life,  and  Trajan  himself,  had 
he  not  escaped  out  at  a  window,  had  undergone  the  same 
fate.  Accidents  which  I  doubt  not  prepared  his  mind 
to  a  more  serious  consideration  and  regard  of  things. 
Though  these  calamities  happened  not  till  some  years 
after  Ignatius's  death. 

11.   Whether   these   judgments  were  immediate  in- 
stances of  the  Divine   displeasure  for  the  severity  used 
against  the  Christians,  and  particularly  for  their  cruelty 
to  Ignatius,  I  will  not  say.     Certain  it  is,  that  the  Chris- 
tian church  had  a  mighty  loss  in  so  useful  and  excellent 
a  person.     For  he  was  a  good  man,  one  in  whose  breast 
the  true  spirit  of  religion  did  eminently  dwell,   a  man  of 
very  moderate  and  mortified  affections,  in  which  sense 
he  doubtless  intended  that  famous   saying,  so  much  ce- 
lebrated by  the  ancients,  o  emos  hpo2  ESTArpnxAi,  myloveis 
crucijied,  that  is  (for  to  that  purpose  he  explains  it  in  the 
very  words  that  follow)  his  appetites   and  desires  were 
crucified  to  the  world,  and  all  the  lusts  and  pleasures  of 
it.  We  may  with  St.  Crysostom''  consider  him  in  a  three- 
fold capacity,  as  an  apostle,  a  bishop,  and  a  martyr.     As 
an  apostle  (in  the  larger  acception  of  the  word,  he  being 
3-i':y»v  3iJ.i:x<ir  T<iy  'A5rcr5/.av,  as  tlic  Grcck  offices'*  style  him,  the 
immediate  successor  of  the  apostles  in  their  see)  he  was  care- 
ful to  diffuse  and  propagate  the  genuine  doctrine  which 
he  had  received  of  the  apostles,  and  took  a  kind  of  oecu- 
menical care  of  all  the  churches  ;   even  in  his  passage  to 
Rome  he  surveved  tx?  y^  ^6A«5r*g5;x(:«c,  as  Eusebius''  tells  us, 
the  diocesses,  or  churches,  that  belonged  to  all  the  cities 
whither  he  came,   confirming  them  by  his  sermons  and 
exhortations,  and  directing  epistles  to  several  of  the  prin- 
cipal, for  tlieir  further  order  and  establishment  in  the 
faith.    As  a  bishop,  he  was  a  diligent,  faithful  and  indus- 
trious pastor,  infinitely    careful  of  his   charge ;   which 
though  so  exceedingly  vast  and  numerous,  he  prudent- 
ly instructed,  governed,  and  superintended,   and  that  in 

z  Orat.  supr.laud.  p.  499.  a  Men.  Grxc.  Trit  x  tS  Hm-Cg. 

b  U.  Eccl.1-3.  c.  36.  p.  lOS. 

G  g 


234  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

the  midst  of  ticklish  and  troublesome  times,  above  forty 
years  together.  He  had  a  true  and  unchangeable  love 
for  his  people,  and  when  ravished  from  them  in  order  to 
his  martyrdom,  there  was  not  any  church  to  whom  he 
wrote,''  but  he  particularly  begged  their  prayers  to  God 
for  his  church  at  Antioch,  and  of  some  of  them  desired 
that  they  would  send  s^2s=rgs3-Cst/T),v,  a  divine  ambassactbr  thi- 
ther on  purpose  to  comfort  them,  and  to  congratulate 
their  happy  deliverance  from  the  persecution.  And  be- 
cause he  knew  that  the  prosperity  of  the  church  and  the 
good  of  souls  were  no  less  undermined  by  lieresy  from 
within,  than  assaulted  by  violence  and  persecution  from 
without,  he  had  a  peculiar  eye  to  that,  and  took  all  occa- 
sions of  warning  the  church  to  beware  of  heretics  and 
seducers  Td  ^>,gi*  t*  avQ^'t'^rs^c^^*,  as  he  styles  them,^  those 
beasts  in  the  shape  of  men,  whose  wild  notions  and  brut- 
ish manners  began  even  then  to  embase  religion,  and 
corrupt  the  simplicity  of  the  faith.  Indeed  he  duly  filled 
up  all  the  measures  of  a  wise  governor,  and  an  excellent 
guide  of  souls,  and  St.  Chrysostom""  runs  through  the 
particular  characters  of  the  bishop  delineated  by  St. 
Paul,  and  finds  them  all  accomplished  and  made  good  in 
him  ;  with  so  generous  a  care^  (says  he)  so  exact  a  dili- 
gence did  he  preside  over  the  flock  of  Christ,  even  to  the 
making  good  what  our  Lord  describes,  aV  ,uiyi?-ov  o^cv  ^  x^snt  ^' 
ivKf-Komn,  as  the  utmost  pitch  and  line  of  episcopal  fidelity, 
to  lay  down  his  life  for  the  sheep  ;  and  this  he  did  with  all 
courage  and  fortitude ;  which  is  the  last  consideration 
we  shall  remark  concerning  him. 

12.  As  a  martyr  he  gave  the  highest  testimony  to  his 
fidelity,  and  to  the  truth  of  that  religion  which  he  both 
preached  and  practised.  He  gloried  in  his  sufferings  as 
his  honour  and  his  privilege,  and  looked  upon  his  chains, 
Tiic  cTV£i;ya7/x.»c  uae^y^ipjidc,  he  calls  them,^  as  his  jewels  and  his  or- 
naments :  he  was  raised  above  either  the  love  or  fear  of 
the  present  state,  and  could  v»  ith  as  much  ease  and  free- 

c  Epist  ad  Eph.  p.  9  ad  Magnes.p.lJ.  ad  Trailian.  p.  -20.  ad  Rom.  p.  25.  acf 
philadelph.  p.  31.  ad  Siinrr..  p.  37. 
d  Epist.  ad  Smyrn.  p.  Si.  &  Euseb.  ubi .  siiur.        c  Ubi  supr.  p.  500  Lc. 
ilbid.  p.  4'J9.        ffEpist.  iidEpli.  p.  6. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS.  235 

dom  (says  Chrysostom'')  lay  down  his  life,  as  another 
man  could  put  oft"  his  clothes.  The  truth  is,  his  soul 
was  strangely  inflamed  with  a  desire  of  martyrdom,  he 
wished  every  step  of  his  journey  to  meet  with  the  wild 
beasts  that  were  prepared  for  him,  and  tells  the  Romans,' 
he  desired  nothing  more  than  they  might  presently  do 
his  work,  that  he  would  im'nc  and  court  them  speedily 
to  devour  him,  and  if  he  found  them  backward,  as  they 
had  been  towards  others,  he  would  provoke  and  force 
them.  And  though  the  death  he  was  to  undergo  was 
most  savage  and  barbarous,  and  dressed  up  in  the  most 
horrid  and  frightful  shapes,  enough  to  startle  the  firmest 
resolution,  yet  could  they  make  no  impression  Wt  t^-v  s-ipV^v 
i)dU/uLdyliy'.v  ivyj^  (as  thc  Grccks  say  of  him*")  upon  his  im- 
pregnable adamantine  mind,  any  more  than  the  dashes  of 
a  wave  upon  a  rock  of  marble.  Let  thejire  (said  he')  and 
the  cross^  theossaidts  of  1011(1  beasts^  the  breaking  of  bones  ^ 
cutting  of  limbs,  battering  the  whole  body  in  pieces,  yea 
and  all  the  torments  which  the  devil  can  invent  come  upon 
me,  so  I  may  but  attain  to  be  with  Jesus  Christ ;  professing 
he  thought  it  much  better  to  die  for  Christ,  than  to  live 
and  reign  the  sole  monarch  of  thc  world.  Expressions 
certainly  of  a  mighty  zeal,  and  a  divine  passion  woundup 
to  its  highest  note.  And  yet  after  all,  this  excellent  per- 
son was  humble  to  the  lowest  step  of  abasure  :  he  oft 
professes  that  he  looked  upon  himself  as  an  abortive,  and 
the  very  least  of  the  faithful  in  the  whole  church  of  An- 
tioch,""  and  that  though  it  was  his  utmost  ambition,  yet 
he  did  not  know  whether  he  was  worthy  to  suffer  for  reli- 
gion.  I  might  in  the  last  place  enter  into  a  discourse 
concerning  his  epistles  (the  true  indices  of  the  piety  and 
divine  temper  of  his  mind)  those  seven  I  mean,  enume- 
rated and  quoted  by  Eusebius,  and  collected  by  St.  Po- 
lycarp,  as  himself  expressly  testifies  ;"  but  shall  forbear, 
despairing  to  offer  any  thing  considerable  after  so  much 
as  has  been  said  by  learned  men  about  them  :   only  ob- 

h  Loc  laudat.         i  Epist.  ad  Rom.  p.  23  &  apud  Eisseb.  Inc.  cit. 
k  Men.  Graec.  ubisupr.         1  Epist.  ad  Rom.  p.  24.  &.  ap.Euseb.  ubisupr 
m  Epist.  ad  Eph.  p.  9.  ad  Rom.  p.  25.     Epist.  ad  Trail,  p.  17.  n  Epist. 

Poiycar.  p.  23.  edit.  Usser.  &  j^.  Euscb.  loc.  cit.  p,  108 


236  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IGNATIUS. 

serving,  that  in  the  exceptions  to  the  argument  from  St. 
Pol}xarp's  testimony,  little  more  is  said  even  by  those 
who  have  managed  it  to  the  best  advantage,  than  what 
might  be  urged  against  the  most  genuine  writing  in  the 
world.  I  add  St.  Polycarp's  character  of  these  epistles, 
whereby  he  recommends  them  as  highly  useful  and  ad- 
vantageous, that  they  contain  in  them  instructions  and 
exhortations  to  faith  and  patience^  and  whatever  is  ne- 
cessary to  build  us  up  in  the  religion  of  our  LoY-d  and 
Saviour, 


HIS  WRITINGS. 

Genuine.  Spurious. 

Ad  Ephesios  Epistola.  1.  Ad  Mariam  Cossobolitam 

Ad  Magnesianos.  1.  Ad  Tarsenses. 

Ad  Trallianos.  1.  Ad  Antiochenos. 

Ad  Romanes.  1.  Ad  Philippenses. 

Ad  Philadelphenos,  1.  Ad  Heronem. 

Ad^Symraseos.  1.  Ad  B.  Virg,  Mariam. 

Doubtful.  Ad  Joannem  Apostolum.  2 


Epistola  ad  Polycarpum. 


THE  LIFE   OF  Sl\  POLYCARP 

BISIIOP  OF  SMYRNA. 


The  place  of  his  Nativity.    The  honour  and  eminencey  of  Smyrna. 
His  education  under  St.  John.     By  him  constituted  Bishop  of  Smyrna, 
Whether  ihe  same  with  the  Bishop  to  whom  St.  John  committed  the 
the  young  man.  St.  Polycarp  tl\e  Angel  of  thc'Church  of  Smyrna  men- 
tioned in  the  Apocalyps.     Ignatius  his  arrival  at  Smyrna.     His  letters 
to  that  Church,  and  to  St.  Polycarp.     His  Journey  to  Rome  about  the 
Quartodcciman  Controversy.     The  time  of  it  enquired  into.     Anice- 
tus  his  succession  to  the  see  of  Rome-     His  reception  there  by   Ani- 
cetus.    Their  mutual  kindness  notwithstanding  the  difference.     His 
stout  opposing  heretics  at  Rome.     Plis  sharp  treatment  of  Marcion, 
and  mighty  zeal  against  those  early  corrupters  of  the  Christian  Doc- 
trine.    Irenxus  his  particular  remarks  of  St.  Polycarp's  actions.    The 
Persecution  under  M.  Antoninus,    The  time  of  Polycarp's  Martyrdom 
noted.     The  acts  of  it  written  by  the  Church  of  Smyrna  :  their  great 
esteem  and  value.     St.  Polycarp  sought  for.     His   Martyrdom  fore- 
told by  a  dream.     His  apprehension.     Conducted  to  Smyrna.     Ire- 
narcliK,   who.    Polycarp's  rude  treatment  by  Herodes.      His  being 
brought  Ijeforc  the  Proconsul.     Christians  refused  to  swear  by  the 
Emperor's  genius,  and  why.    His  pious  and   resolute   answers.    His 
slighting  the   Proconsul's  threatnings.       His    sentence   proclaimed. 
Asiarchaj   who.     Preparation  for  his  burning.     His  prayer  before  hjis 
death.    Miraculously  preserved  in  the  fire.   Despatched  with  a  Sword. 
The  care  of  the  Christians  about  his  Remains :  this  far  from  a  super- 
stitious A  eneration.     Their  annual  meeting  at  the  place  of  his  mar- 
tyrdom.    His  great  age  at  his  death.     The  day  of  his  passion.     His 
tomb  how  honoured  at  this  day.    The  judgments  happening  to  Smyrna 
after  his  death.     The  Faith  and  Patience  of  the  Primitive  Christians 
noted  out  of  the  Preface  to  the  Acts  of  his  Martyrdom.     His  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians.     Its  \isefulness.    Highly  valued  and  publicly  read 
in  the  ancient  Church.    The  Epistle  itself, 

1.  ST.  POLYCARP  was  born  towards  the  latter 
end  of  Nero's  reign,  or  it  may  be  a  little  sooner,  his  great 
age  at  the  time  of  his  death,  with  some  other  circumstan- 
ces rendering  it  highl}-  probable,  if  not  certain.  Uncer- 
tain it  is  where  he  was  born,  and  I  see  no  sufficient  rea- 


258  THE    LIFE   OF   ST.    POLYCARP. 

son  to  the  contrary,  why  we  may  not  fix  his  nativity  at 
Smyrna,  an  eminent  city  of  Ionia  in  the  lesser  Asia,  the 
first  of  the  seven  that  entered  their  claim  of  being  the 
birth-place  of  the  famous  "Homer,  in  memory  whereof 
they  had  a  library,  and  a  four-square  portico,  called 
Homereum,  with  a  temple  and  statute  of  Homer  ad- 
joining to  it,  and  used  a  sort  of  brass  coin,  which  they 
called  'Ofx^iiov,  after  his  name,  and  probably  with  his  image 
stamped  upon  it.  A  place  it  was  of  great  honour  and  re- 
nown, and  has  not  only  very  magnificent  titles  heaped 
upon  it  by  the  writers  of  those  times,  but  in  several 
ancient  inscriptions,  set  up  by  public  order  of  the  se- 
nate, not  long  after  the  time  of  Adrian,  it  is  styled.  The 
chief  City  of  Asm  ^  both  for  heauty  and  greatness  ^  the  most 
splendid^  the  Metropolis  of  Asia,  and  the  Ornament  of 
Ionia.  ^But  it  had  a  far  greater  and  more  honourable  pri- 
vilege to  glory  in,  if  it  was  (as  we  suppose)  the  place  of 
St.  Poly  carp's  nativity,  however  of  his  education,  the 
seat  of  his  episcopal  care  and  charge,  and  the  scene  of  his 
tragedy  and  martyrdom.  The 'Greeks  in  their  Meuceon, 
report  that  he  was  educated  at  the  charge  of  a  certain  noble 
matron  (whose  name  we  are  told  was  Callisto)  a  woman  of 
great  piety  and  charity,  who  when  she  had  exhausted  all 
her  granaries  in  relieving  the  poor,  had  them  suddenly  fill- 
ed again  by  St.  Polycarp's  prayers.  The  circumstances 
whereof  are  more  particularly  related  by  Pionius  (who 
suffered,  if,  which  I  much  question,  it  was  the  same,  un- 
der the  Decian  persecution)  to  this  ''eflect.  Callisto 
warned  by  an  angel  in  a  dream  sent  and  redeemed  Po- 
lycarp  (then  but  a  child)  of  some  who  sold  him,  brought 
him  home,  took  care  of  his  education,  and  finding  him  a 

a  Strab.  Geograph.  1.  14  p.  646, 

b   H   KI'AT12TH  BOYAH 

TH2  nPilTH2  TH2  A21A2 

KAAAF.1    KAl   MtFEeEl    KAI 

AAMUPOTATHIS   KAl    MHTPO 

nOAEUS   TH2  A21A2 

KAl    K02M0r 

TH5  iriNlA2  2MTPNA1 

fiN  nOAEn2.     Marmor.  Oxon.  II.  p  47.  Eadem 
iiabet  Marm.  LXXVIIl.  p.  129.  CXLIII.  p.  277.  Append.  XV.  p.  296. 

d  Pion.  vit.  S.  Polycarp.  ex  MS.  GrKC.  apud.  Bolland.Januar.XXVl.  p.  696- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  239 

youth  of  ripe  and  pregnant  parts,  as  he  grew  up,  made 
him  the  major-domo  and  steward  of  her  house;  whose  cha- 
rity  it  seems  he  dispensed  with  a  veiy  liberal  hand,  inso- 
much that,  during  her  absence,  he  had  emptied  all  her 
barns  and  store -houses  to  the  uses  of  the  poor.  For 
which  being  charged  by  his  fellow- servants  at  her  reurn, 
she  not  knowing  then  to  what  purpose  he  had  imployed 
them,  called  for  the  ke}  s,  and  commanded  him  to  re- 
sign his  trust,  which  was  no  sooner  done,  but  at  her  en- 
trance in,  she  found  all  places  full,  and  in  as  good  condi- 
tion as  she  had  left  them,  which  his  prayers  and  inter- 
cession with  heaven  had  again  replenished.  As  indeed 
heaven  can  be  sometimes  content  rather  to  work  a  mi- 
racle, than  charity  should  suffer  and  fare  the  worse  for  its 
kindness  and  bounty.  In  his  younger  years  he  is  said  to 
have  been  instructed  in  the  Christian  faith  by  Bucolus, 
whom  the  same  'Menason  elsewhere  informs  us  St.  John 
had  consecrated  bishop  of  Smyrna  ;  however  ^authors  of 
more  unquestionable  credit  and  ancient  date  tell  us,  that 
he  was  St.  John's  disciple,  and  not  his  only,  but  as  ^Ire- 
nasus,  who  was  his  scholar  (followed  herein  by  St.  Hie- 
rom)  assures  us,  he  was  taught  by  the  apostles,  and  fa- 
miliarly conversed  with  many  who  had  seen  our  Lord  in. 
the  flesh. 

2.  Bucolus  the  vigilant  and  industrious  bishop  of 
Smyrna  being  dead,  (by  whom  St.  Poly  carp  was  as  we 
are  ""told,  made  deacon  and  catechist  of  that  church,  an 
ofiice  which  he  discharged  with  great  diligence  and  suc- 
cess) Polycarp  was  ordained  in  his  room,  according  to 
Bucolus's  own  prediction,  who  as  the  'Greeks  report, 
had  in  his  lifetime  foretold  that  he  should  be  his  succes- 
sor. He  was  constituted  by  St.  John,  say  the  ''ancients 
generally ;  though  Trensus  followed  herein  by  the 
"'Chronicle  of  Alexandria,  affirms  it  to  have  been  done  by 

f  Act.  I.^nat.  p.  5.  Hieron.de  Script,  in  Polycarp.  Euseb.  Xgcr.  Asy.  p.  81. 

g  Adv.  Hxres.  1.  3.  c.  3.  p.  233.  &  ap.  Euseb.  1.  4.  c.  14-.  p.  127. 

h  Pion.  c.  3.  n.  12.  nbi  supr.  i  Men.  23.  Febr.  ubi  supr. 

k  TertuU.  de  prescript.  Hxretic.  c.  32.  p.  213.  Hieron.  ubi  supr.  vid.  Suid 
in  voc.  UiKVK^frr.  Niceph.  H.  Eccl.  1.  3.  c.  2.  p.  225.  Martjr.  Rom.  ad  26,  Jan 
P-  71.  1  Log.  supr.  ciut. 

m  Oljmp.  CCZXIV.  1.  Anton-  XZI.  p.  602. . 


24a  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

the  apostles,  whether  any  of  the  apostles  beside  St.  John 
were  then  alive,  or  whether  he  means  apostolic  persons 
(commonly  styled  apostles  in  the  writings  of  the  church) 
who  joined  with  St.  John  in  the  consecration.  "Euse- 
bius  says,  that  Polycarp  was  familiarly  conversant  with 
the  apostles,  and  received  the  government  of  the  church 
of  Smyrna  from  those  who  had  been  eye  -witnesses  and 
ministers  of  our  Lord.  It  makes  not  a  little  for  the  ha- 
nour  of  St.  Polycarp,  and  argues  his  mighty  diligence 
and  solicitude  for  the  good  of  souls,  that  (as  we  shall  note 
more  anon)  Ignatius  passing  to  his  martyrdom,  wrote  to 
him,  and  particularly  recommended  to  him  the  inspection 
and  oversight  of  his  church  at  Antioch,  knowing  him 
(says  °Eusebius)  to  be  truly  an  apostolical  man,  and  be- 
ing assured  that  he  would  use  his  utmost  care  and  fidelity 
in  that  matter.  The  ^author  of  the  Alexandrian  Chro- 
nicle tells  us,  that  it  was  the  bishop  of  Smyrna  (who 
could  not  well  be  any  other  than  St.  Polycarp)  to  whom 
St.  John  committed  the  tutorage  and  education  of  the 
young  man,  whom  he  took  up  in  his  visitation,  who  ran 
away,  and  became  captain  of  a  company  of  loose  and  de- 
bauched highwaymen,  and  was  afterwards  reduced  and 
reclaimed  by  that  apostle.  But  seeing  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus,  who  relates  the  story,  sets  down  neither  the  name 
of  the  bishop,  nor  the  city,  though  he  ''confesses  there 
were  some  that  made  mention  of  it,  nor  is  this  circum- 
stance taken  notice  of  by  any  other  ancient  writer,  nor 
that  bishop's  neglecting  of  his  charge  well  consistent  with 
St.  Polycarp's  care  and  industry,  I  shall  leave  the  story 
as  I  find  it.  Though  it  cannot  be  denied  but  that  Smyrna 
was  near  to  Ephesus,  as  St.  Clemens  says,  that  city  also 
was,  and  that  St.  John  seems  to  have  had  a  more  than 
ordinary  regard  to  that  church,  it  being  next  Ephesus, 
the  first  of  those  seven  famous  Asian  churches,  to  whom 
he  directed  his  epistles,  and  St.  Polycarp  at  this  time 
bishop  of  it :  for  that  he  was  that  angel  of  the  church  of 
Smyrnay  to  whom  that  Apocalyptical   epistle  was  sent, 

n  H.  Eccl.  1.  S.  c.  36.  p.  106.  o  lb.  p.  137. 

p  Ad.  Ann.  1.  Olympiad.  CCXX.  Indict.  XIII.  ann.  Trsj.  4.  p.  5i;4. 

q  Ap.  Euseb.  I.  3.  c.  23.  p.  92. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  241 

is  not  only  highly  probable,  but  by  a  'learned  man  put 
past  all  question.  I  must  confess  that  the  character  and 
circumstances  ascribed  by  St.  John  to  the  angel  of  that 
church  seem  very  exactly  to  agree  with  Polycarp,  and 
with  no  other  bishop  of  that  church  (about  those  times 
especially)  that  we  read  of  in  the  history  of  the  church. 
And  whoever  compares  the  account  of  St.  Poly  carp's 
martyrdom,  with  the  notices  and  intimations  which  the 
Apocalypst  there  gives  of  that  person's  sufferings  and 
death,  will  find  the  prophecy  and  the  event  suit  together. 
Tlrtit  which  may  seem  to  make  most  against  it  is,  the 
long  time  of  his  presidency  over  that  see  :  seeing  by  this 
account  he  must  sit  at  least  74  years  bishop  of  that 
church,  from  the  latter  end  of  Domitian's  reign  (when 
the  Apocalyps  was  written)  to  the  persecution  under  M. 
Aurelius,  when  he  suffered.  To  which  no  other  solution 
needs  be  given,  than  that  his  great,  nay  extreme  age  at 
the  time  of  his  death  renders  it  not  at  all  improbable  ; 
especially  when  we  find  several  ages  after,  that  Remigius 
bishop  of  Rhemes,  sat  74  years  bishop  of  that  place. 

3.  It  was  not  many  years  after  St.  John's  death,  when 
the  persecution  under  Trajan  began  to  be  reenforced, 
wherein  the  eastern  parts  had  a  very  large  share.  Ann. 
Chr.  107,  Ignatius  was  condemned  by  the  emperor  at 
Antioch,and  sentenced  to  be  transported  to  Rome  in  or- 
der to  his  execution.  In  his  voyage  thither  he  put  in  at 
Smyrna,  to  salute  and  converse  with  Polycarp,  these  holy 
men  mutually  comforting  and  encouraging  each  other, 
and  conferring  together  about  the  affairs  of  the  church. 
From  Smyrna  Ignatius  and  his  company  sailed  to  Troas, 
whence  he  sent  back  an  epistle  to  the  church  of  Smyrna, 
wherein  he  endeavours  to  fortify  them  against  the  errors 
of  the  times  which  had  crept  in  amongst  them,  especially 
against  those  who  undermined  our  Lord's  humanity,  and 
denied  his  coming  in  the  flesh,  affirming  him  to  have  suf- 
fered only  in  an  imaginary  and  phantastic  body.  An 
opinion,  (which  as  it  deserved)  he  severely  censures, 
and  strongly  refutes.     He  further  presses  them  to  a  due 

!■  Usser.  Prolegom   ad  Ignat.  Epist.  c.  52  p.  9. 

n'  h 


242  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP 

observance  and  regard  of  their  bishop,  and  those  spiri- 
tual guides  and  ministers  which  under  him  were  set  over 
them ;  and  that  they  would  despatch  a  messenger  on 
purpose  to  the  church  of  Antioch,  to  congratulate  that 
peace  and  tranquillity  which  then  began  to  be  restored  to 
them.  Besides  this  he  wrote  particularly  to  St»  Poly- 
carp,  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  man  of  apostolic  temper,  a 
person  of  singular  faithfulness  and  integrity,  recommend- 
ing to  him  the  care  and  superintendency  of  his  discon- 
solate church  of  Antioch.  In  the  epistle  itself,  as  ex- 
tant at  this  day,  there  are  many  short  and  useful  rules  and 
precepts  of  life,  especially  such  as  concern  the  pastoral 
and  episcopal  office.  And  here  again  he  renews  his  re- 
quest concerning  Antioch,  that  a  messenger  might  be 
sent  from  Smyrna  to  that  Church,  and  that  St.  Poly  carp 
would  write  to  other  churches  to  do  the  like ;  a  thing 
which  he  would  have  done  himself,  had  not  his  hasty  de- 
parture from  Troas  prevented  him.  And  more  than  this 
we  find  not  concerning  Polycarp  for  many  years  after, 
till  some  unhappy  differences  in  the  church  brought  him 
upon  the  public  stage. 

4.  It  happened  that  the  quartodecinian  controversy 
about  the  observation  of  Kaster  began  to  grow  very  high 
between  the  eastern  and  western  churches,  each  standing 
very  stifly  upon  their  own  way,  and  justifying  themselves, 
by  apostolical  practice  and  tradition.  That  this  fire  might 
not  break  out  into  a  greater  flame,  St.  Polycarp'  under- 
takes a  journey  to  Rome  to  interpose  with  those  who 
were  the  main  supports  and  champions  of  the  opposite 
party,  and  gave  life  and  spirit  to  the  controversy.  Though 
the  exact  time  of  his  coming  hither  cannot  precisely  be 
defined,  yet  will  it  in  a  great  measure  depend  upon  Ani- 
cetus's  succession  to  that  see,  in  whose  time  he  came 
thither.  Now  evident  it  is  that  almost  all  the  ancient 
catalogues  place  him  before  Soter,  and  next  to  Pius, 
whom  he  succeeded.  This  succession  ^Eusebius  places 
Ann.  Chr.  154,  a  computation  certainly  much  truer  than 
that  of  Baronius,  who  places  it  in  the  year  167,  and  con 

»  Iren.  apvid.  Euscb.  II.  Eccl.  1. 4.  c.  14.  p.  127.         t  Chron.  ad  An.  cliv. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  243 

sonantly  to  this  the  chronicle  of  Alexandria"  places  St. 
Polycarp's  coming  to  Rome  Ann.  Chr.  158,  Anton.  Imp. 
21.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  in  two  ancient  catalogues  of 
the  bishops  of  Rome,  set  down  by  'Optatus  and  St.  Au- 
gustine"",  Anicetus  is  set  before  Pius,  and  made  imme- 
diately to  succeed  Hyginus  ;  by  which  account  he  must 
be  removed  fifteen  years  higher,  for  so  long  Eusebius 
positively  says  Pius  sat.  And  methinks  it  seems  to  look 
a  little  this  way,  that  Eusebius  having  given  an  account 
of  the  emperor  Antoninus  Pius's  rescript  in  behalf  of  the 
Christians  (granted  by  him  in  his  third  consulship,  Ann, 
Chr.  140,  or  thereabouts)  immediately  adds,  that  about 
the  time  of  the  things  spoken''  of  Anicetus  governed  the 
church  of  Rome,  and  Polycarp  came  thither  upon  this  er- 
rand; the  late  peace  and  indulgence  granted  to  the  Chris- 
tians probably  administering  both  opportunity  and  en- 
couragement to  his  journey.  But  seeing  this  scheme  of 
times  contradicts  Eusebius's  plain  and  positive  account 
in  other  places,  and  that  most  ancient  catalogues,  espe- 
cially that  of  Irenaius^  and  Hegesippus^  (who  both  lived 
and  were  at  Rome  in  the  time  of  Anicetus  himself)  con- 
stantly place  Anicetus  next  to  Pius,  I  dare  not  disturb 
this  ancient  and  almost  uncontrolled  account  of  things, 
till  1  can  meet  with  better  evidence  for  this  matter.  But 
whenever  it  was,  over  he  came  to  Anicetus  to  confer  with 
him  about  this  affair.  Which  makes  me  the  more  won- 
der at  the  learned  Monsieur  Valois*  who  with  so  peremp- 
tory a  confidence  denies  that  Polycarp  came  to  Rome 
upon  this  errand,  and  that  it  was  not  the  difference  about 
the  pascal  solemnity,  but  some  other  controversies  that 
brought  him  thither,  when  as  ''Irenasus's  express  words 
are  (if  Eusebius  rightly  represent  them)  that  he  came 
to  Rome  to  confer  and  discourse  with  Anicetus,  <f'*  ti  ^«t«- 
^a  «r«gi  ■/  ^  TO  ■riTx,=t  li/zij*?,  l)y  rcasoTi  of  a  certain  controversy  con- 
cerning the  clay  whereon  Easter  was  to  be  celebrated.  It  is 
true,  he  says',  that  they  differed  a  little  'm^it  i)).m  wiv,  about 

u  Loc.  infra  cit.  v  De  Schism.     Donatist.  I.  2.  p.  38.  w  Epist. 

clxv.  ad  Generos.  col.  751.  x  H.  Eccl.  1.  4  c.  14.  p.  12".  y  Lib.  o.  c. 

3.  Scap.Eus.  I.  4.  c.  13.  p.  126.  z  Ap.  Euseb.  ib.  c.  22.  p.  142.  a  An- 

not.  la  Euseb.  p.  1U9.  b  Ap.  Euscb.  loc.  cit.  vid.  etiam.  Chron.  Alex,  ad 

An.  2.  Olym.  224.  Ind.  x.  p.  602.  ubi  \is,hQ\.,iix  tntt^iAx  Tsnit  t»i'c  tsu  Tritrya.  soerSj. 

c  Ibid.  1. 5.  c.  24.  pag.  193  ->      r-       ^  ^      i 


*. 


244  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLY  CARP. 

some  other  things,  but  this  hindered  not,  but  that  the 
other  was  the  main  errand  and  inducement  of  his  voyage 
thither  :  though  even  about  that  (as  he  adds)  there  was 
no  great  contention  between  them.  For  those  holy  and 
blessed  souls  knowing  the  main  and  vital  parts  of  religion 
not  to  be  concerned  in  rituals  and  external  observances, 
mutually  saluted  and  embraced  each  other.  They  could 
not  indeed  so  satisfy  one  another,  as  that  either  would 
quit  the  customs  v/hich  they  had  observed,  but  were  con- 
tent still  to  retain  their  own  sentiments,  without  violating 
that  charity,  which  was  the  great  and  common  law  of  their 
religion  In  token  whereof  they  communicated  together 
at  the  holy  sacrament ;  and  Anicetus  to  put  the  greater 
honour  upon  St.  Poly  carp,  gave  him  leave  to  consecrate 
the  eucharist  in  his  own  church  :  after  which  they  parted 
peaceably,  each  side  though  retaining  their  ancient  rites, 
yet  maintaining  the  peace  and  communion  of  the  church. 
The  ancient  Synodicon''  tells  us  that  a  provincial  synod 
was  held  at  Rome  about  this  matter  by  Anicetus,  Poly- 
caqo,  and  ten  other  bishops,  where  it  was  decreed  that 
Easter  should  not  be  kept  at  the  time,  nor  after  the  rites 
and  manner  of  the  Jews,  but  be  celebrated  *vih  rh  ^sg/<rsf» 
ij  (AiyixT^  MgMK'iii,  on  the  eminent  and  great  Lord's  day  that 
followed  after  it.  But  improbable  it  is  that  St.  Polycarp 
should  give  his  vote  to  an)-  suchdetermin.ation,  when  we 
know  that  he  could  not  agree  with  Anicetus  in  this  con- 
troversy, and  that  he  left  Rome  with  the  same  judgment 
and  practice  herein,  wherewith  he  came  thither. 

5.  During  his  stay  at  Pome^  he  mainly  set  himself  to 
convince  gainsayers,  testifying  the  truth  of  those  doc- 
trines which  he  had  received  from  the  apostles,  whereby 
he  reclaimed  many  to  the  communion  of  the  church,  who 
had  been  infected  and  overrun  with  errors,  especially 
the  pernicious  heresies  of  Marcion  and  Valentinus. 
And  when  Marcion  meeting  him  one  day  accidentally  in 
the  street,  and  ill  resenting  it  that  he  did  not  salute  him, 

d  Synofl.  a  Papp.  edit.  gT.  l.p.  3.  &  Concil.  Tom.  1.  col.  583.  edit,  noviss. 
elren.  adv.  hjei-cs.  I,  3.  c.3-  p.  233.  &p.Euseb.  1.  4.  c.  14. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  245 

called  out  to  him,  Polycarp  ow?i  tis;  the  good  man  replied 
in  a  just  indignation,  J  own  thee  to  be  the  jirst  horn  of 
Satan.  So  religiously  cautious  (says  Irtnaius'^)  were 
the  apostles  and  their  followers,  not  so  much  as  by  dis- 
course to  communicate  with  any  that  did  adulterate  and 
corrupt  the  truth  ;  observing  St.  Paul's  rule,  a  man  that 
is  an  heretic  after  the  first  and  second  admonition  reject  ; 
knoivifig  that  he  that  is  such  is  preverted,  and  sinneth^  be- 
ing condemned  ofhimscf^.  Indeed  St.  Poly  carp's  pious 
and  devout  mind  was  fermented  with  a  mighty  zeal  and 
abhorrency  of  the  poisonous  and  pestilent  principles, 
which  in  those  times  corrupted  the  simplicity  of  the 
Christian  faith,  insomuch  that  when  at  any  time  he 
heard  any  thing  of  that  nature,  he  was  wont ''presently  to 
stop  his  ears,  and  cry  out,  §*oof/  Gock  into  what  times  hast 
thou  resei'ved  me^  that  1  should  hear  such  things  !  imme- 
diately avoiding  the  place  where  he  had  heard  any  such 
discourse.  And  the  same  dislike  he  manifested  in  all 
the  epistles,  which  he  wrote  either  to  neighbour  churches, 
or  particular  persons,  warning  them  of  errors,  and  ex- 
horting them  to  continue  steadfast  in  the  truth.  This 
zeal  against  heretics,  and  especially  his  carriage  towards 
Marcion,  we  may  suppose  he  learnt  in  a  great  measure 
from  St.  John,  of  whom  he  was  wont  to  'tell,  that  going 
into  a  bath  at  Ephesus,  and  espying  Cerinthus,  the  here- 
siarch  there,  he  presently  started  back,  let  us  be  gone 
(said  he  to  his  companions)  lest  the  bath^  wherein  there 
is  Qerinthus^  the  enemy  of  the  truth,  fall  upon  our  heads. 
This  passage  (says  Irena3us)  some  yet  alive  heard  from 
St.  Polycarp's  own  mouth,  and  himself  no  doubt  among 
the  rest;  for  so  he  tells  us  ''elsewhere,  that  in  his  youth 
when  he  was  with  St.  Polycarp  in  the  lesser  Asia,  he  took 
such  particular  notice  of  things,  that  he  perfectly  re- 
membered the  very  place  where  he  used  to  sit  while  he 
discoursed,  his  goings  out  and  coming  in,  the  shape  of 

Men.   Grsecor.  ubi  supr.  g  Tii.  iii,  9,  10. 

Ii  Iren.  Epist.ad  Florin,  ap.  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.  20.  p.  83. 

i  Iren.  1. 3.  c.  3.  p.  233  h  ap  Euscb.  I.  4.  c.  14.    k  Epist.  ad.  Florin,  ubi  supr. 


246  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

his  body,  and  the  manner  of  his  life,  his  discourses  to  the 
people,  and  the  account  he  was  wont  to  give  of  his  fa- 
miliar converse  with  St.  John  and  others,  who  had  seen 
our  Lord,  whose  sayings  he  rehearsed,  and  whatever 
they  had  told  him  concerning  our  Saviour,  concerning  his 
miracles  and  his  doctrine,  which  themselves  had  either 
seen  or  heard,  agreeing  exactly  v/ith  the  relations  of  the 
sacred  history.  All  which  Irenzeus  tells  us  he  particu- 
larly took  notice  of,  and  faithfully  treasured  them  up  in 
his  mind,  and  made  them  part  of  his  constant  meditation. 
These  are  all  the  material  remarks  which  I  find  among 
the  ancients  concerning  Polycarp  during  the  time  of  his 
government  of  the  church  at  Smyrna.  Indeed  there 
are  several  miracles  and  particular  passages  of  his  life 
related  by  the  above-mentioned  Pionius,  which  tend  in- 
finitely to  exalt  the  honour  of  this  holy  man.  But  see- 
ing the  author  is  obscure,  and  that  we  can  have  no  rea- 
sonable satisfaction  who  he  was,  and  whence  he  borrow- 
ed his  notices  and  accounts  of  things,  I  choose  rather  to 
suspend  my  belief,  than  to  entertain  the  reader  with  those 
(at  best  uncertain)  relations  which  he  has  given  us. 

6.  IN  thereign  of  M.  Antoninus  andL.  Verus,  began 
a  severe  persecution,  (whether  fourth  or  fifth,  let  others 
inquire)  against  the  Christians,  Melito  Bishop  of  Sardis, 
who  lived  at  that  time,  and  dedicated  his  Apology  to  the 
Kmpcrors,  making  mention  of  '''"v*  x^  '^i^v  A^riav  hyixait-^Sit-Tiy. 
iJi^i-j.}  new  edicts  and  decrees  which  the  Emperors  had 
issued  out  through  Asia,  by  virtue  AAhereof  impudent 
and  greedy  informers  spoiled  and  vexed  the  innocent 
Christians.  But  the  storm  increased  into  a  more  violent 
tempest  about  the  seventh  year  of  their  reign,  Ann. 
Chr.  167.  when  the  emperor  Marcus  Antoninus  de- 
signing an  expedition  against  the  '"Marcomanni,  the 
terror  of  whom  had  sufficiently  awakened  them  at  Rome, 
summoned  the  priests  together,  and  began  more  so- 
lemnly to  celebrate  their  religious  rites,  and  no  doubt 
but  he  was  told  that  there  was  no  better  way  to  propiti- 

1  Apud.  Euseb.  1.  4.  c.  26.  p.  147. 

TO  Jul.  Cajiit.  in  vit.  M.  Antonin.  c.  13.  p.  181. 


-THE  LIFE  OF  ST.   POLYCARP.  24r 

ate  and  atone  the  gods,  then  to  bear  hard  upon  the 
Christians,  generally  looked  upon  as  the  most  open  and 
hateful  enemies  to  their  gods.  And  now  it  was  that 
St.  Polycarp  after  a  long  and  diligent  discharge  of  his 
duty  in  his  episcopal  station  received  his  crown.  So 
vastly  wide  of  the  mark  are  the  later  "Greeks,  making 
him  in  their  public  offices  to  suffer  martyrdom  under  the 
Decian  persecution.  Nor  much  nearer  is  that  of  "So- 
crates (however  he  fell  into  the  error)  who  tells  us  that 
he  was  martyred  under  Gordianus.  Mistakes  so  extra- 
vagant, that  there  needs  no  more  to  confute  them,  than 
to  mention  them.  Concerning  his  sufferings  and  mar- 
tyrdom we  have  a  full  and  particular  relation  in  a  letter 
of  the  church  of  Smyrna  written  not  long  after  his  death 
to  the  church  of  Philomelium  (or  more  truly  Philadel- 
phia) and  in  the  nature  of  an  encyclical  epistle,  to  all 
the  Dioceses  ("rag-WKi*/,)  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church;  the 
far  greatest  part  whereof  Eusebius  has  inserted  into  his 
History,  leaving  out  only  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
though  the  entire  epistle  together  with  its  ancient  ver- 
sion, or  rather  paraphrase,  is  since  published  by  Bishop 
Usher.  It  was  penned  by  Euaristus,  and  afterwards 
(as  appears  by  their  several  subscriptions  at  the  end  of 
it)  transcribed  out  of  Irenasus's  copy  by  Caius,  con- 
temporary and  familiar  with  Ireneeus,  out  of  his  by  one 
Socrates  at  Cornith,  and  from  his  by  Pionius,  who  had 
with  great  diligence  found  it  out.  A  piece  it  is  that 
challenges  a  singular  esteem  and  reverence  both  for  the 
subject  matter  and  the  antiquity  of  it,  with  which  PScaii- 
ger  thinks  every  serious  and  devout  mind  must  needs  be 
so  affected,  as  never  to  think  it  has  enough  on't ;  professing 
for  his  own  part  that  he  never  met  with  any  thing  in  all  the 
history  of  the  church,  with  the  reading  whereof  he  was 
more  transported,  so  that  he  seemed  no  longer  to  be  him- 
self. Which  effect  that  it  may  have  upon  the  pious  well- 
disposed  reader,  we  shall  present  him  with  this  following 
account. 

n  Men.  Grscc.  T>i  v.y  tcu  <t5egvgft, 

o  H.  Eccl.  1.  5.  c.  22.  p.  284. 

p  Aniraadv.  ad  Euseb.  Chr.  ad  N.  MMCLXXXIII.  p.  2?I. 


248  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

7.  THE  persecution  growing  hot  at  ''Smyrna,  and 
man}'"  having  ah^eady  sealed  their  confession  with  their 
blood,  the  general  outcry  was,  away  with  the  impious, 
(or  the  Atheists,  such  they  generally  called  and  accounted 
the  Christians)  let  Polycarp  be  sought  for.  The  good 
man  was  not  disturbed  at  the  news,  but  resolved  to  en- 
dure the  brunt  :  till  his  friends,  knowing  his  singular 
usefulness,  and  that  our  Lord  had  given  leave  to  his  dis- 
ciples, when  persecuted  in  one  city  to  flee  to  another, 
prevailed  with  him  to  withdraw  into  a  neighbouiing  vil- 
lage, where  w^ith  a  few  companions  he  continued  day  and 
night  in  prayer,  earnestly  interceding  with  heaven  (as 
afore-time  it  had  ever  been  his  custom)  for  the  peace 
and  tranquillity  of  all  the  churches  in  the  world.  Three 
days  before  his  apprehension  falling  at  night  as  he  was 
at  prayer  into  a  trance,  he  dreamt  that  his  pillow  was 
on  fire,  and  burned  to  ashes  ;  which  when  he  wakened, 
he  told  his  friends  was  a  prophetic  presage,  that  he 
should  be  burnt  alive  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  In  the 
mean  time  he  was  every  where  narrowly  sought  for,  up- 
on notice  whereof  his  friends  persuaded  him  to  retire 
into  another  village,  whither  he  was  no  sooner  come  but 
his  enemies  were  at  hand,  who  seizing  upon  a  couple  of 
youths  (one  of  whom  by  stripes  they  forced  to  a  con- 
fession,) were  by  thein  conducted  to  his  lodging.  En- 
tering the  house  at  evening,  they  perceived  him  to  be 
in  bed  in  an  upper  room  ;  and  though  upon  notice  be- 
forehand of  their  coming  he  might  easily  have  saved  him- 
self by  slipping  into  another  house,  yet  he  refused,  say- 
ing, the  will  of  the  Lord  be  done,  ^Understanding  his  per- 
secutors were  there,  he  came  down  and  saluted  them 
with  a  very  chearful  and  gentle  countenance ;  inso- 
much that  they  who  had  not  hitherto  known  him,  won- 
dered to  behold  so  venerable  a  person,  of  so  great  age, 
and  so  gra^'e  and  composed  a  presence,  and  what  needed 
all  this  stir  to  hunt  and  take  this  poor  old  man.  He 
nothing  concerned,    ordered    a  table  to   be  spread,  and 

q  Epist.  Eccles.  Smvrn.  de   M.trt.  Po'.vcavp.  Edit.  Usser.  p.   16.   Sc   apvid 
Euseb.  I.  4.  c.lo.  i).129. 


THE    LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  249 

provisions  to  be  set  upon  it,  inviting  them  to  partake  of 
them,  and  only  requesting  for  himself",  thatiiithe  mean  while 
he  might  have  one  hour  for  prayer.  Leave  being  granted, 
he  rose  up,  and  betook  himself  to  his  devotions,  wherein  he 
had  such  mighty  assistances  of  divine  grace,  ihat  he  con- 
tinued praying  near  two  hours  together  heartily  recom- 
mending to  God  the  case  of  all  his  friends  and  acquaint- 
ance, whether  great  or  little,  honourable  or  ignoble,  and 
the  state  of  the  Catholic  church  throughout  the  world, 
all  that  heard  him  being  astonished  at  it,  and  many  of 
them  now  repenting  that  so  divine  and  venerable  an  old 
man  should  be  put  to  death. 

8.  His  prayer  being  ended,  and  they  ready  to  depart, 
he  was  set  upon  an  ass,  and  (it  being  then  the  great- 
sabbath^  though  wdiat  that  great  sabbath  was,  learned 
men,  I  believe,  will  hardly  agree  till  the  coming  of  Elias) 
conducted  into  the  city.  As  they  were  upon  the  road, 
they  were  met  by  Herod  and  his  father  Nicetes,  who  in- 
deed were  the  main  springs  of  the  persecution,  and  had 
put  the  tumult  into  m.otion.  This  Herod  was  an  irenarcha, 
one  of  those,  adquos  tuendce  publico  pads  vigilantia  per^ 
t'mebat,  as  ^St.  Augustin  describes  them  ;  their  office 
was  mostwhat  the  same  with  that  of  our  modern  jus^ 
ticesof  the  peace ^  they  being  set  to  guard  the  provinces, 
and  to  secure  the  public  peace  and  quietness  within 
their  several  jurisdictions,  to  prevent  and  suppress  riots 
and  tumults,  robberies,  and  rapines,  and  to  inquire  into 
the  companions  and  receivers  of  all  such  persons,  and 
to  transmit  to  the  magistrates  the  examinations  and  no- 
tices which  they  had  received  of  such  matters.  They 
"Were  appointed  either  by  the  emperor  himself,  or  the 
Prcefecti  Pratorio^  or  the  Decurios ;  and  at  this  time 
the  custom  in  the  provinces  of  the  lesser  Asia  was,  that 
every  city  did  yearly  send  ten  of  the  names  of  their  prin- 
cipal persons  to  the  governor  of  the  province,  who  cliose 
out  one  to  be  the  irenarcha,  the  keeper,  or  justice  of  the 
peace.  Being  afterwards  found  grievous  and  troublesome 
to  the  people,  they   were  taken  away  by  a  law  of  the 

r  Epist.  CLIX.  col.  720.  CLX.  c.  722.  vid.  1. 18.  $  4.  fT  de  mimcr.  &  honor. 
Tit.  4.  8;  1.  6.  §  2.  ff.  (le  ciistod.  &exhib  reor.  Tit.  3. 

I    i 


250  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

younger  Theodosius%  though  the  office  remamed  un- 
der another  name.  This  office  at  Smyrna  was  at  this 
time  managed  by  this  Herod,  whom  Baronius'  conjec- 
tures to  be  Herodes  Atticus",  a  man  of  consuhr  dignity, 
and  of  great  learning  and  eloquence,  and  who  had  been 
tutor  to  the  present  emperor.  Certain  it  is  that  that  He- 
rod governed  in  the  free  cities  of  Asia'',  and  resided  some- 
times at  Smyrna  :  though  it  cramps  the  conjecture,  that 
the  name  of  that  Herod's  father  was  Atticus,  of  this  Ni- 
cetes,  unless  we  will  suppose  him  to  have  had  two  names. 
But  whoever  he  ])e,  a  great  enemy  he  was  to  Polycarp, 
whom  meeting  upon  the  way,  he  took  him  up  into  his 
chariot,  where  both  he  and  his  father  by  plausible  insi- 
nuations sought  to  undermine  his  constancy,  asking 
him  what  great  harm  there  was  in  saying,  my  lord  the 
emperor',  and  in  sacrificing,  by  which  means  he  might 
escape.  This  was  an  usual  way  of  attempting  the  Chris- 
tians ;  not  that  they  made  any  scruple  to  acknowledge 
the  emperor  to  be  their  lord,  (none  were  so  forward,  so 
earnest  to  pay  all  due  subjection  and  reverence  to  prin- 
ces) but  because  they  knew  that  the  Romans,  too  apt  to 
flatter  the  ambition  of  their  emperors  into  a  fondly  usurpt 
divinity,  by  that  title  usually  understood  God,  as  Ter- 
tullian''  tells  them  ;  in  any  other  notion  of  the  word  they 
could  as  freely  as  any  call  him  Lord,  though,  as  he  adds, 
even  Augustus  himself  '^  modestly  forbad  that  title  to  be 
ascribed  to  him. 

9.  St.  Polycarp  returned  no  answer  to  their  de- 
mand, till  importunately  urging  him,  he  replied,  that 
he  would  not  at  any  rate  comply  with  their  persuasi- 
ons. Frustrated  of  the  ends  which  they  had  upon  him, 
they  now  lay  aside  the  vizor  of  their  dissembled  friend- 
ship, and  turn  their  kindness  into  scorn  and  reproaches, 
thrusting  him  out  of  the  chariot  with  so  much  violence, 
that  he  bruised  his  thigh  with  the  fall.  Whereat  no- 
thing daunted,  as  if  he  had  received  no  hurt,  he  cheer 

s  C.  Th.  1.  unic.  Tit.  14.  de  Hirenaicli.        t  Ad  Ann.  CLXIX.  n.  7. 
U  A  Cell.  noct.  An.  1.  1.  c.  2.  p.  2.  J.  <:;.pit.  ia  vit.    M.  Anton,  c.  o.  p.  151. 
V  Plillastr.  de  vit.  Sophist  I.  2.  in  Herotl.  p.  m.  6-16.  &.   1.   1.  in    Polcnion.  p. 
6*2.        w  Apolog.  c.  34  p.  23.         x  Vid.  Sueton.  in  vit.  Aug,,  c.  53.  p  VJt. 


THE   LIFE   OF   ST.   POLYCARP.  ^^1 

fully  hastened  on  to  the  place  of  his  execution  under  the 
conduct  of  his  guard  :  Avhither  when  they  were  come, 
and  a  confused  noise  and  tumult  was  arisen,  a  voice 
came  from  Heaven  (heard  by  many,  but  none  seen  who 
spake  it,)  saying'.  Poly  carp  he  strong,  and  quit  thyself 
like  a  man.  Immediately  he  was  brought  before  the 
pubhc  tribunal,  where  a  great  shout  was  made,  all  re- 
joicing that  he  was  apprehended.  The  proconsul 
(whose  name  was  L.  Statins  Quadratus)  this  very  year, 
as  Aristides^  the  orator  who  lived  at  this  time  at  Smyrna 
informs  us,  the  proconsul  of  Asia,  (as  not  long  before  he 
had  been  consul  at  Rome,)  asked  him  whether  he  was 
Polycarp  ?  which  being  confessed,  he  began  to  persuade 
him  to  recant ;  Regard,  said  he,  thy  great  age,  swear  by 
the  genius  of  Ccesar,  repent,  and  say  with  us,  take  axmy 
the  impious.  These  were  «  C'^'"''^^«  ai-Toic,  as  my  author  tru- 
ly observes,  their  usual  terms  and  proposals  to  Christians, 
who  stoutly  refused. to  swear  by  the  emperor's  genius; 
upon  which  account  the  heathens  generally  traduced 
them  as  traitors  and  enemies  to  the  state,  though  to 
wipe  ofi'  that  charge,  they  openly  professed'^,  that  though 
they  could  not  swear  by  the  fortune  of  the  emperor, 
(their  genii  being  accounted  deities,  whom  the  Christi- 
ans knew  to  be  but  daemons,  and  cast  out  at  every  turn) 
yet  they  scrupled  not  to  swear  by  the  emperor's  safety, 
a  thing  more  august  and  sacred  than  all  the  genii  in  the 
world. 

10.  The  holy  martyr  looking  about  the  stadium, 
and  with  a  severe  and  angry  countenance,  beholding  the 
crowd,  beckoned  to  them  with  his  hand,  sighedand  look- 
ed up  to  Heaven,  saying,  (though  quite  in  another  sense 
then  they  intended)  take  away  the  impious.  The  pro- 
consul still  persuaded  him  to  swear,  with  promise  to  re- 
lease him,  withal  urging  him  to  blaspheme  Christ ;  for 
with  that  temptation  they  were  wont  to  assault  Chris.- 
tians,  and  thereby  to  try  the  sincerity  of  their  renegadoes, 
a  course  which  Pliny  tells  us''  he  observed  towards  apos- 

y  Orat.  Sacr.  4.         z  Tert.  Apol.  c.  32.  p.  28.  Orig.  contr.  Cels.  1.  8.  p.  421. 
a  Epist.  ad  Trajan.  Imp.  Ep.  97  1. 10. 


352  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

tate  Christians,  though  he  withal  confesses,  that  non^ 
of  them  that  were  really  Christians  could  ever  be  brought 
to  it.  The  motion  w^as  resented  with  a  noble  scorn,  and 
drew  from  Pol}  carp  this  generous  confession,  "  Four- 
score and  six  years  I  have  served  him,  and  he  never  did 
me  any  harm,  how  then  shall  I  now  blaspheme  my  king 
and  my  Saviour  ?"  But  nothing  will  satisfy  a  malicious 
misguided  zeal :  the  proconsul  still  importuned  him  to 
swear  by  Caesar's  genius ;  to  whom  he  replied,  '*  Since 
you  are  so  vainly  ambitious  that  I  should  swear  by  the 
emperor's  genius,  as  you  call  it,  as  if  you  knew  not 
who  I  am,  hear  my  free  confession.  I  am  a  Christian. 
If  you  have  a  mind  to  learn  the  Christian  religion,  appoint 
me  a  time,  and  I  will  instruct  you  in  it.  The  proconsul 
advised  him  to  persuade  the  people  ;  he  answered,  "  To 
you  I  rather  choose  to  address  my  discourse  ;  for  we  are 
commanded  by  the  laws  of  our  religion  to  give  to  prin- 
ces and  the  powers  ordained  of  God,  all  that  due  honour 
and  reverence,  that  is  not  prejudicial  and  contrary  to  the 
precepts  of  religion.  As  for  them"  meaning  the  com- 
mon herd  "  I  think  them  not  competent  judges  to 
whom  I  should  apologize,  or  give  an  account  of  my 
faith." 

1 1 .  The  proconsul  now  saw  it  was  in  vain  to  use 
any  further  persuasives  and  entreaties,  and  therefore  be- 
took himself  to  severer  arguments  :  "  I  have  wild  beasts 
at  hand"  said  he  "to  which  I  will  cast  thee,  unless  thou 
recant"  "  Call  for  them"  cried  the  martyr,  "  for  we 
are  immutably  resolved  not  to  change  the  better  for  the 
worse,  accounting  it  fit  and  comely  only  to  turn  from 
vice  to  virtue.  Since  thou  makest  so  light  of  wild  beasts 
{added  the  proconsul)  I  have  a  fire  that  shall  tame  thee, 
unless  thou  repent.  "  Thou  threatenest  me  with  afire'* 
answered  Polycarp  "  that  burns  for  an  hour,  and  is  pre- 
sently extinct  but  art  ignorant,  alas,  of  the  fire  of  eternal 
damnation  and  the  judgment  to  come,  reserved  for  the 
"wicked  in  the  other  world.  But  why  delayest  thou  ? 
bring  forth  whatever  thou  hast  a  mind  to."  This  and 
much  more  he  spake  with  a  pleasant  and  cheerful  confi- 
dence, and  a  divine  grace  was  conspicuous  in  his  very 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  253 

looks,  so  far  was  he  from  cowardly  sinking  under  the 
great  threatcnings  made  against  him.  Yea  the  procon- 
sul himself  was  astonished  at  it,  though  finding  no  good 
could  be  done  upon  him,  he  commanded  the  crier  in  the 
middle  of  the  stadium  thrice  to  make  open  proclama- 
tion (as  was  the  manner  of  the  Romans  in  all  capital  trials) 
Polycarp  has  confessed  himself  a  Christta?i.  Whereat 
the  whole  multitude  both  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  that  were 
present,  (and  probable  it  is  that  the  ts  Ko/viv  t 'aj-iSic,  the  com- 
mon council,  or  assembly  of  Asia,  might  about  this  time 
be  held  at  Smyrna  for  the  celebration  of  their  common 
shows  and  sports  ;  for  that  it  was  sometimes  held  here  is 
evident  from  an  ancient  inscription  making  mention  of 
it,)  gave  a  mighty  shout,  crying  out  aloud,  This  is  the 
great  doctor  of  Asia,  and  the  father  of  the  Christians ; 
this  is  the  destroyer  of  our  gods,  that  teaches  rnen  not  to 
do  sacrifice,  or  worship  the  deities. 

12.  The  cry  being  a  little  over,  they  immediately  ad- 
dressed themselves  to  Philip  the  asiarch :  these  ''asiarchs 
were  Gentile  priests  belonging  to  the  commonalty  of 
Asia,  yearly  chosen  at  the  common-council  or  assembly 
of  Asia,  to  the  number  of  about  ten,  (whereof  one  was 
principal)  out  of  the  names  returned  by  the  several  cities. 
It  was  an  office  of  great  honour  and  credit,  but  withal  of 
great  expense  and  charge,  they  being  obliged  to  enter- 
tain the  people  with  sights  and  sports  upon  the  festival 
solemnities,  and  therefore  it  was  not  conferred  but  upon 
the  more  wealthy  and  substantial  citizens.  In  this  place 
was  Philip  at  this  time,  whom  the  people  clamorously  re- 
quested, to  let  out  a  lion  upon  the  malefactor.  Which 
he  told  them  he  could  not  do,  having  already  exhibited 
Ta  Kt/v»i>s«i,  the  hunting  of  wild  beasts  with  men,  one  of  the 
famous  shows  of  the  amphitheatre.  Then  they  unani- 
mously demanded,  that  he  might  be  burnt  alive  ;  a  fate 
which  he  himself  from  the  vision  in  his  dream  had  pro- 
phetically foretold  should  be  his  portion.  The  thing  was 
no  sooner  said  than  done,  each  one  striving  to  bear  a  pai't 

b  —SMTPNAN  KO]  NON  ASIAS.  Marm.  Oxon.  Ill,  p.  70.  c  Vid.  1.  6. 

1. 14.  ff.  de  Excusat.  Tit.  1.  h.  I.  8.  $.  1.  de  Vacat.  Tit.  5.  ibid.  vid.  etiam  Aris. 
tid.  Orat.  Sacr.  IV. 


.254  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

in  this  fatal  tragedy,  with  incredible  speed  fetching  wood 
and  faggots  from  several  places,  but  especiall}-  the  Jews 
were  peculiarly  active  in  the  service,  malice  to  Christians 
being  almost  as  natural  to  them  as  it  is  for  the  fire  to 
burn.  The  fire  being  prepared,  St.  Polycarp  untied  his 
girdle,  l^id  aside  his  garments,  and  began  to  put  oft'  his 
shoes  ;  ministeries  which  he  before  was  not  wont  to  be 
put  to  ;  the  Christians  ambitiously  striving  to  be  admit- 
ted to  do  them  for  him,  and  happy  he  that  could  first 
touch  his  body.  So  great  a  reverence  even  in  his  younger 
years  had  he  from  all  for  the  admirable  strictness  and  re- 
gularity of  his  holy  life. 

13.  The  officers  that  were  employed  in  his  execution 
having  disposed  all  other  things,  came  according  to  cus- 
tom to  nail  him  to  the  stake  ;  which  he  desired  them  to 
omit,  assuring  them,  that  he  who  gave  him  strength  to 
endure  the  fire,  would  enable  him  without  nailing  to  stand 
immovable  in  the  hottest  flames.  So  they  only  tied  him, 
who  standing  like  a  sheep  ready  for  the  slaughter,  de- 
signed as  a  grateful  sacrifice  to  the  Almighty,  clasping 
his  hands  which  were  bound  behind  him,  he  poured  out 
his  soul  to  Heaven  in  the  following  prayer.  "  O  Lord 
God  Almighty,  the  father  of  thy  well-beloved  and  ever 
blessed  son  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we  have  received  the 
knowledge  of  thee  ;  the  God  of  angels,  powers,  and  of 
every  creature,  and  of  the  whole  race  of  the  righteous, 
who  live  before  thee  ;  I  bless  thee  that  thou  hast  graci- 
ously condescended  to  bring  me  to  this  day  and  hour, 
that  I  may  receive  a  portion  in  the  number  of  thy  holy 
martyrs,  and  drink  of  Christ's  cup,  for  the  resurrection 
to  eternal  life  both  of  soul  and  body  in  the  incorruptible- 
ness  of  the  holy  Spirit.  Into  which  number  grant  I  may 
be  received  this  day,  being  found  in  thy  sight  as  a  fair 
and  acceptable  sacrifice,  such  a  one  as  thou  thyself  hast 
prepared,  that  so  thou  mayest  accomplish  what  thou,  O 
true  and  faithful  God,  hast  foreshown.  Wherefore  I 
praise  thee  for  all  thy  mercies,  I  bless  thee,  I  glorif}-  thee, 
through  the  eternal  high  priest,  thy  beloved  son  Jesus 
Christ ;  with  whom  to  thyself  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be 
glory  both  now  and  for   ever.     Amen."     Which  last 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  255 

word  he  pronounced  with  a  more  clear  audible  voice,  and 

having  done  his  prayer,  the  ministers  of  execution  blew 
up  the  fire,  which  increasing  to  a  mighty  flame,  behold  a 
wonder  (seen,  say  my  authors,  by  us,  who  were  purposely 
reserved,  that  we  might  declare  it  to  others)  the  flames 
disposing  themselves  into  the  resemblance  of  an  arch, 
like  the  sails  of  a  ship  swelled  with  the  wind,  gently  en- 
circled the  body  of  the  martyr,  who  stood  all  the  while 
in  the  midst,  not  like  roasted  flesh,  but  like  gold  or  sil- 
ver purified  in  the  furnace,  his  body  sending  forth  a  de- 
lightful fragrancy,  which  like  frankincense,  or  some 
other  costly  spices,  presented  itself  to  our  senses^. 

14.  How  blind  and  incorrigibly  obstinate  is  unbelief! 
The  infidels  were  so  far  from  being  convinced,  that  they 
were  rather  exasperated  by  the  miracle,  commanding  a 
spearman,  one  of  those  who  were  wont  to  despatch  wild 
beasts  when  they  became  outrageous,  to  go  near  and  run 
him  through  with  a  sword^;  which  he  had  no  sooner 
done,  but  such  a  vast  quantity  of  blood  flowed  from  the 
wound,  as  extinguished  and  put  out  the  fire ;  together 
with  which  a  do\  e  was  seen  to  fly  from  the  wounds  of  his 
body,  which  some  suppose  to  have  been  his  soul,  clothed 
in  a  visible  shape  at  the  time  of  its  departure  ;  though 
true  it  is,  that  this  circumstance  is  not  mentioned  in  Eu- 
sebius's  account,  and  probably  never  was  in  the  originaL 
Nor  did  the  malice  of  Satan  end  here,  he  knew  by  the  in- 
nocent and  unblamable  course  of  his  life,  and  the  glori- 
ous constancy  of  his  martyrdom,  that  he  had  certainly 
attained  tlife  crown  of  immortality,  and  nothing  now  was 
left  for  his  spite  to  work  on,  but  to  deprive  them  even  of 

d  Phccnicem  si  quis  medio  miretiir  in  igTie 
Emnri,  &  extructo  se  reparaie  rogo. 
ObsUipeat  POLYC  ARPr:,  avidas  tibi  parcere  flammas, 

Non  ausas  saci a  te  violire  face. 
Mille  nitent  tedje,  nitihitnq  ;  hiiic  inde  favillis, 

AU],ue  in  te  Dominnm,  quem  cnlis  ipse,  cckint. 
Prxmia  nunc  nv.ijora  tibi  sed  reddit  Olympus, 
Ignea  qui  peciibiis  siibjicit  astrasuis. 
Inscript.  Romx  in  Ecclesia  S.  Slephani  in  Caciio,  suprascripta  itWc  Siracid<c 
senitntiu : 

Ecclesiastic.  LI.  6. 

IN  MEDIO  IGNIS  NON  SUM  ^STUATUS. 
e  Vfd.  usser.  not.  74.  in  Ace.  Polycarp.  p.  67. 


256  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

the  honour  of  his  bones.  For  many  were  desirous  to 
have  given  his  body  decent  and  honourable  burial,  and  to 
have  assembled  there  for  the  celebration  of  his  memory  ; 
but  were  prevented  by  some  who  prompted  Nicetes,  the 
father  of  Herod,  and  brother  to  Alee,  to  advise  the  pro- 
consul not  to  bestow  his  body  upon  the  Christians,  lest 
leaving  their  crucified  master,  they  should  henceforth 
worship  Polycarpus.  A  suggestion  however  managed 
by  the  Heathens,  yet  first  contrived  and  prompted  by  the 
Jews,  who  narrowly  watched  the  Christians  when  they 
would  have  taken  away  his  body  from  the  place  of  exe- 
cution :  "  Little  considering  (they  are  the  very  words  of 
my  authors)  how  impossible  it  is  that  either  we  should 
forsake  Christ,  who  died  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole 
world,  or  that  we  should  worship  any  other.  Him  we 
adore  as  the  Son  of  God,  but  martyrs  as  the  disciples 
and  followers  of  our  Lord,  we  deservedly  love  for  their 
eminent  kindness  towards  their  own  prince  and  master, 
whose  companions  and  fellow-disciples  we  also  by  all 
means  desire  to  be."  So  far  were  those  primitive  and 
better  ages  from  that  undue  and  superstitious  veneration 
of  the  relics  of  martyrs  and  departed  saints  which  after- 
ages  introduced  into  the  church,  as  elsewhere  we  have 
showed  more  at  large^. 

15.  The  centurion  beholding  the  perverseness  and  ob- 
stinacy of  the  Jews,  commanded  the  body  to  be  placed 
in  the  midst,  and  in  the  usual  manner  to  be  burnt  to 
ashes ;  whose  bones  the  Christians  gathered  up  as  a 
choice  and  inestimable  treasure,  and  decently  interred 
them.  In  which  place  they  resolved,  if  possible,  (and 
they  prayed  God  nothing  might  hinder  it)  to  meet  and 
celebrate  the  birdi-day  of  his  martyrdom,  both  to  do  ho- 
nour to  the  memor}'  of  the  departed,  and  to  prepare  and 
encourage  others  hereafter  to  give  the  like  testimony  to 
the  faith.  Both  which  considerations  gave  birth  and  ori- 
ginal to  the  Me?rioria  Martyrum^  those  solemn  anniver- 
sary commemorations  of  the  martyrs  which  mc  have  in 
Hnother  place  more  fully  showed'^,  were  generally  kept  in 

f  Prim.  Christ,  part  I.  chap.  5.  g  Ibid.  chap.  7. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  257 

the  primitive  church.  Thus  died  this  apostolical  man 
Ann.  Chr.  167,  about  the  hundredth  }  ear  of  his  age  ;  for 
those  eighty  six  years,  which  himself  speaks  of,  wherein 
he  had  served  Christ,  cannot  be  said  to  commence  from 
his  birth,  but  from  his  baptism  or  new  birth,  at  which 
time  we  cannot  well  supjiose  him  to  have  been  less  than 
sixteen  or  twenty  years  old  :  besides  his  converse  with 
the  apostles,  and  consecration  by  St.  John,  reasonably 
suppose  him  of  some  competent  years,  for  we  cannot 
think  he  would  ordain  a  youth,  or  a  very  young  man 
bishop,  especially  of  so  great  and  populous  a  city.  The 
incomparable^  ''primate,  from  a  passage  in  his  epistle,  con- 
jectures him  to  have  lived  (though  not  then  converted  to 
Christianity)  at  the  time  wdien  St.  Paul  wrote  his  epistles  ; 
which  if  so,  must  argue  him  to  have  been  of  a  greater 
age  :  nor  is  this  any  more  improbable  than  ^vhat  '^-'ua- 
dratus,  the  Christian  apologist,  who  lived  under  Hadrian, 
and  dedicated  his  Apologetic  to  that  emperor,  reports ; 
that  there  were  some  of  those  whom  our  Lord  had  heal- 
ed, and  raised  from  the  dead  alive  even  in  his  time  :  and 
of  Simeon  successor  to  St.  James  in  the  bishoprick  of 
Jerusalem,  ''Hegcsippus  expressly  relates  that  he  was  120 
years  old,  at  the  time  of  his  matryrdom.  Sure  I  am, 
'Ireuceus  particularly  notes  of  our  St.  Poiycarp,  that  he 
lived  a  very  long  time,  and  was  arrived  to  an  exceeding 
great  age,  when  he  underwent  a  most  glorious  and  illus- 
trious martyrdom  for  the  faith. 

16.  He  suffered  on  the  second  of  the  month  Xanthi- 
eus,  the  7th  of  the  kalends  of  May,  though  w^hether  mis- 
taken for  the  7th  of  the  kalends  of  April,  and  so  to  be  re* 
ferrcd  to  March  26,  as  some  will  have  it,  or  for  the  7th 
of  the  kalends  of  March,  and  so  to  be  adjudged  to  Febru- 
arv  23,  as  others,  is  difficult  to  determine.  It  shall  suf- 
fice to  note,  that  his  memory  is  celebrated  by  the  Greek 
church,  February  the  23d,  by  the  Latin,  January  the 
26th.  The  amphitheatre  where  he  suffered  is  in  a  great 
measure  yet  remaining,  (as  a  late  ""eye-witness  and  dili- 

h  Annot.  in  Ep.  St.  PoTycarp.  p.  2.  i  Ap-  Eusch.  1.  4.  c.  3.  p.  116. 

k  Ibid.  1.  o.  c.  32.  j).  104.  1  Adv.  Hrere.s   1.  3.  c.  3.  &  ap.  Ens.  1,  l.  c.  14-.  p, 

12r.         m  Til.  Smilh  Kpist.  de  Vll.  Asi^c  F.ccles.  p.  164. 

K  k 


258  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

gent  searcher  into  antiquity  informs  us)  in  the  tuo  oppo- 
site  sides  whereof  are  the  dens  where  the  hons  were  wont 
to  be  kept.  His  tomb  is  in  a  little  chapel  in  the  side  of 
a  mountain  on  the  south-east  part  of  the  city,  solemnly 
visited  by  the  Greeks  upon  his  festival  day  ;  and  for  the 
maintenance  and  reparation  whereof,  travellers  are  wont 
to  throw  in  a  few  aspres  into  an  earthen  pot  that  stands 
there  for  that  purpose.  How  miserable  the  state  of  this 
city  is  under  the  Turkish  yoke  at  this  day,  is  without  the 
limits  of  my  business  to  inquire  :  to  look  a  little  higher 
to  the  times  we  write  of,  though  I  love  not  to  make  se- 
vere and  ill-natured  interpretations  of  the  actions  of  di- 
vine providence,  yet  I  cannot  but  observe,  how  heavy  the 
divine  displeasure  not  long  after  Polycarp's  death  fell,  as 
upon  other  places,  so  more  particularly  upon  this  city,  by 
plague,  fire,  and  earthquakes,  mentioned  by  "others,  but 
more  fully  described  by  "Aristides,  their  own  orator,  who 
was  contemporary  with  St.  Polycarp.  By  which  means 
their  city,  before  one  of  the  glories  and  ornaments  of  Asia, 
was  turned  into  rubbish  and  ashes,  their  stately  housss 
overturned,  their  temples  ruined  ;  one  especially,  which 
as  it  advanced  Asia  above  other  countries,  so  gave  Smj-r- 
na  the  honour  and  precedence  above  other  cities  of  Asia  ; 
their  traffic  spoiled,  their  marts  and  ports  laid  waste,  be- 
sides the  great  numbers  of  people  that  lost  their  lives. 
Indeed  the  fate  so  sad,  that  the  orator  was  forced  to  give 
over,  professing  himself  unable  to  describe  it. 

17.  I  cannot  better  close  the  story  of  Polycarp's  mar- 
tyrdom, than  with  the  preface  which  the  church  of  Smyr- 
na has  in  the  beginning  of  it,  as  what  eminent!}^  represents 
the  illustrious  faith  and  patience  of  those  primitive  Chris- 
tians. "  Evident  it  is  (say  they^)  that  all  those  martyr- 
doms are  great  and  blessed,  which  happen  by  the  will  of 
God  ;  for  it  becomes  us  Christians,  who  have  a  more  di- 
\me  religion  than  others,  to  ascribe  to  God  the  so\ereign 
disposure  of  all  events.  Who  would  not  stand  and  ad- 
mire the  generous  greatness  of  their  mind,  their  singular 

n  Xiphi)   Epit.  Dion,  in  M.  Anton,  p.  2S1.  o  In  Orat.  Monodia  did.  vid. 

rhd.isti-.de  vit.  Sopliist.  1.  2  in  Avistid,  p.  in.  639.  p  Edit-  usscr.  p.  U. 

•nnfer  Eusfb.  1. 4.  c.  1.).  p.  I?-'. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  25S 

patience,  and  admirable  love  to  God  ?  who  when  their 
flesh  was  with  scourges  so  torn  off  their  backs,  that  the 
whole  frame  and  contexture  of  their  bodies,  even  to  their 
inmost  veins  and  arteries,  might  be  seen,  yet  patiently  en- 
dured it.  Insomuch  that  those  who  were  present,  pitied 
and  grieved  at  the  sight  of  it,  while  they  themselves  were 
endued  with  so  invincible  a  resolution,  that  none  of  them 
gave  one  sigh  or  groan  :  the  holy  martyrs  of  Christ  let- 
ting lis  see,  that  at  that  time  when  they  were  thus  tor- 
mented, they  were  strangers  to  their  own  bodies  ;  or  ra- 
ther that  our  Lord  stood  by  them  to  assist  and  comfort 
them.  Animated  by  the  grace  of  Christ,  they  despised 
the  torments  of  men,  by  one  short  hour  delivering  them- 
selves from  eternal  miseries  :  the  fire  which  their  tor- 
mentors put  to  them  seemed  cool  and  little,  while  they 
had  it  in  their  eye,  to  avoid  the  everlasting  and  unextin- 
guishing  flames  of  another  world  ;  their  thoughts  being 
fixed  upon  those  rewards  which  are  prepaied  for  them 
that  endure  to  the  end,  such  as  neither  ear  hath  heard, 
nor  eye  hath  seen^  nor  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man  ;  but  which  were  shown  to  them  by  our  Lordj  as- 
being  now  no  longer  mortals,  but  entering  upon  the  state 
of  angels.  In  like  manner  those  who  were  condemned 
to  be  devoured  by  wild  beasts,  for  a  long  time  endured 
the  most  grievous  tortures  ;  shells  of  fishes  were  strewed 
under  their  naked  bodies,  and  they  forced  to  lie  upon 
sharp  pointed  stakes  driven  into  the  ground,  and  several 
such  like  engines  of  torture  devised  for  them,  that  (if 
possible)  by  the  constancy  of  their  torments,  the  enemy 
might  drive  them  to  renounce  the  faith  of  Christ :  vari- 
ous  were  the  methods  of  punishment  which  the  Devil  did 
invent,  though,  blessed  be  God,  there  were  not  many, 

whom  they  were  able  to  prevail  upon. And  at  the 

end  of  the  epistle^  they  particularly  remark  concerning 
Polycarp,  that  he  was  not  only  a  famous  doctor,  but  an 
eminent  martyr,  whose  martyrdom  all  strove  to  imitate, 
as  one  who  by  his  patience  conquered  an  unrighteous 
judge,  and  by  that  means  having  attained  an  immortal 

•q  Ubi.  supr.  p.  2S. 


260  THE  LIFE    OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

crown  was  triumphing  with  the  apostles,  and  all  the  souls 
of  the  righteous  glorifying  God  the  Father,  and  praising 
of  our  Lord,  the  disposer  of  our  bodies,  and  the  bishop 
and  pastor  of  the  Catholic  church  throughout  the  world. 
Nor  were  the  Christians  the  only  persons  that  reverenced 
his  memory,  but  the  very  Gentiles  (as  ""Eusebius  tells 
us)  every  where  spoke  honourably  of  him. 

18.  As  for  his  writings,  besides  that  'St.  Hierom  men« 
tions  the  volumes  of  Papias  and  Polycarp,  and  the  above 
mentioned  '^Pionius  his  .Epistles  and  Homilies,  "Jrenasus 
evidently  intimates  that  he  wrote  several  Epistles,  of  all 
which  none  are  extant  at  this  day,  but  the  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians,  an  epistle  peculiarly  celebrated  by  the  an- 
cients, very  useful  says  "'St.  Hierom,  ttJw  s-«L.y.*r«  (as  '"Sui- 
das  and  "Sophronius  style  it)  a  ?nost  admirable  epistle, 
^Irenaeus  gives  it  this  eulogium,  that  it  is  a  most  perfect 
and  absolute  epistle^  whence  they  that  are  careful  of  their 
salvation^  may  learn  the  character  of  his  faith,  and  the 
truth  which  he  preached.  To  which  EuselDius  adds,  that 
in  this  epistle  he  makes  use  of  some  quotations  out  of 
the  first  epistle  of  St.  Peter.  An  observation  that  holds 
good  with  the  epistle,  as  we  have  it  at  this  day,  there  be- 
ing many  places  in  it  cited  out  of  the  first,  not  one  out  of 
the  second  epistle.  Photius  passes  this  just  and  true 
judgment  of  it,  that  it  is  full  of  many  admonitions,  deli- 
vered with  clearness  and  simplicity,  according  to  the  ec- 
clesiastic way  and  manner  of  interpretation.  It  seems  to 
hold  a  great  affinity  both  in  style  and  substance  with  Cle- 
mens's  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  often  suggesting  the 
same  rules,  and  making  use  of  the  same  words  and  phra- 
ses, so  that  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  he  had  that  ex- 
cellent epistle  particularly  in  his  eye  at  the  writing  of  it. 
Indeed  it  is  a  pious  and  truly  Christian  epistle,  furnished 
with  short  and  useful  precepts  and  rules  of  life,  and  pen- 
ned with  the  modesty  and  simplicity  of  the  apostolic 
times,  valued  by  the  ancients  next  to  the  writings  of  the 

r  Loc.  supr.  cit.  p.  135.  s  Epist.  ad  Lucin  p.  194.  torn.  1.        t  Vit.  Po- 

lycarp.  c.  o.  n.  12.  p.  697.  ubi  supr.  u  Epist.  ad  Florin,  ap.  Euseb.  ubi  supr. 

V  De  Script,  in  Polycarp.  w  Suid.  in  voc.  ricxoxag-o-.  x  Sophron.  ap. 

Kieron-  ib.        y  Adv.  Kzre*.  1.  3.  c.  3.&  ap,  Eus.  1.  4.  c.  15.  p.  128. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  26i 

holy  canon  ;  and  St.  Hierom  tells  us  that  even  in  his 
time''  it  was  read  in  Jsia-  conve?itti,  in  the  public  assem- 
blies of  the  Asian  church.  It  was  first  published  in 
Greek  by  P.  Halloix  the  Jesuit,  jijin.  1633,  and  not  ma- 
ny years  after  by  bishop  Usher :  and  I  presume  the 
pious  Reader  will  think  it  no  unuseful  digression,  if  I 
here  subjoin  so  venerable  a  monument  of  the  ancient 
church. 


THE  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP, 

BISIISOP  OF   SMYRNA   AND   MARTYR,  TO  THE  PHILLTPIANS. 

Polycarp  and  the  Presbyters  that  are  with  him,  to  the  Church  of  God 
which  is  at  Philippi :  Mercy  unto  you,  and  Peace  from  God  Alaiight}", 
aud  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour,  be  multipUed. 

I.  I  REJOICED  with  you  greatly  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
diat  ye  entertained  the  patterns  of  true  love,  and  (as  became 
vou)  conducted  onwards  those  who  were  bound  with  chains 
which  are  the  ornaments  of  saints,  and  the  crowns  of  those  that 
are  the  truly  elect  of  Ciod,  and  of  our  Lord :  and  that  the  firm 
root  of  your  f\iith,  formerly  published,  does  yet  remain,  and 
bring  forth  fruit  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  pleased  to 
offer  up  himself  even  unto  death  for  our  sins :"  whom  God  raised 
up,  having  loosed  the  pains  of  death  :^  in  xvhom^  though  yoii  see 
him  not^  ye  believe^  and  believing^  ye  rejoice  xvith  joy  nnspeakable 
and  full  of  glory  ;  whereinto  many  desire  to  enter,  knowing  that 
by  grace,  ye  are  sa\'ed,'^  not  by  works,  but  by  the  will  of  God 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

II.  Wherefore  girding  up  your  loins ^^  serve  God  in  fear  and 
truth,  forsaking  empty  and  vain  talking,  and  the  error  wherein 
so  many  are  involved,''  believing  in  him  who  raised  up  cur  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead^  and  gave  him  glory  ^  and  a  throne  at 
his  right  hand  ;  to  whom  all  things  both  in  heaven  and  in  earth 
are  put  in  subjection,  whom  every  thing  that  has  breath  wor- 
ships, who  comes  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead,  whose  blood 

z  Ubi  sup.  a  Acts  ii.  24.  b  1  Pet.  i,  a  c  Eph.  ii.  8. 

d  1  Pet.  i.  13.  e  lPet.i.21. 


262  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP. 

God  will  require  of  them  that  believe  not  in  him.  But  he  who 
raised  him  up  from  the  dead,  will  raise  up  us  also,  if  we  do  his 
will,  and  walk  in  his  commandments,  and  love  what  he  loved, 
abstaining  from  all  unrighteousness,  inordinate  desire,  covetons- 
ness,  detraction,  false  witness;  fnot  rendering  evil  for  evil,  or 
railing  for  railing,  or  striking  for  striking,  or  cursing  for  curs- 
ing, but  remembering  what  the  Lord  said  when  he  taught  thus,^ 
Wtkjic^g^^  f^ot^  that  ye  be  not  judged^  forgive  and  ye  shallbe  forgivent 
be  merciful^  that  ije  may  obtain  mercy  :  with  zvhat  measure  yc 
mete^  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again  :  and  that  blessed  are  the 
poor^  and  therj  which  are  persecuted  for  righteousness  sake^for 
theirs  is  the  iingdofti  of  God. 

3.  These  things,  brethren,  I  write  to  j^ou  concerning  righte- 
ousness, not  of  my  own  humour,  but  because  yourselves  did 
provoke  me  to  it.  For  neither  I,  nor  any  other  such  as  I  am, 
can  attain  to  the  wisdom  of  blessed  and  glorious  St.  Paul,  who 
being  among  you,  and  conversing  personally  with  those  who 
were  then  alive,  firmly  and  accurately  taught  the  word  of  truth  ; 
and  Avhen  absent,  wrote  epistles  to  you,  by  which,  if  you  look 
into  them,  ye  rnay  be  built  in  the  faith,  delivered  unto  you, 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all,  being  followed  by  hope,  and  led 
on  by  love,  both  towards  God,  and  Christ,  and  to  our  neigh- 
bour. For  whoever  is  imvardly  replenished  with  these  things, 
has  fulfilled  the  law  of  righteousness  ;  and  he  that  is  furnished 
with  love,  stands  at  a  distance  from  all  sin.  But  the  love  of 
vioneij  is  the  beginning  of  all  evil.i  Knowing  therefore  that  rue 
brought  nothing  into  the  worlds  and  that  we  shall  carry  nothing 
ojity  let  us  arm  ourselves  with  the  armour  of  righteousness,  and 
in  the  first  place  be  instructed  ourselves  to  walk  in  the  com- 
mands of  the  Lord,  and  next  teach  your  wives  to  live  in  the  faith 
delivered  to  them,  in  love,  and  chastity,  that  they  embrace  their 
own  husbands  with  all  integrity,  and  others  also  with  all  tem- 
perance and  continency,  and  that  they  educate  and  discipline 
their  children  in  the  fear  of  God.  The  v/idows,  that  they  be 
sober  and  modest  concerning  the  faith  of  the  Lord,  that  they 
incessantly  intercede  for  all,  and  keep  themselves  from  all  slan- 
dering detraction,  false  witness,  covetousness,  and  every  evil 
work  :  as  knowing  that  they  are  the  altars  of  God,  and  that  he 
accurately  surveys  the  sacrifice,  and  that  nothing  can  be  con- 
cealed from  him,  neither  of  our  reasonings,  nor  thoughts,  nor 
the  secrets  of  the  heart.  Accordingly  knowing  that  God  is  not 
mocked,  we  ought  to  walk  worthy  of  his  command,  and  of  his 
glory. 

f  1  Pet.  Hi  9.  g  Matt.  vii.  1.  Lukevi.  36,37. 

h  M.ut.  V.  3.  10.  i  1  Tim.  vi.  7. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  263. 

4.  Likewise  let  the  deacons  be  unblamable  before  his  righte- 
ous presence,  as  the  ministers  of  God  in  Christ,  and  not  of  men  ; 
not  accusers,  not  double-tongued,  not  covetous,  but  temperate 
in  all  tilings,  compassionate,  diligent,  walking  according  to  the 
truth  of  the  Lord,  who  became  the  deacon  or  servant  of  all :  of 
whom,  if  we  be  careful  to  please  him  in  this  world,  we  shall  re- 
ceive the  reward  of  the  other  life  according  as  he  has  promised 
to  raise  us  from  the  dead :  and  if  we  walk  worthy  of  him,  xve 
believe  that  rve  shall  also  reigJi  with  him.  Let  the  young  men 
also  be  unblamable  in  all  things,  studying  in  the  first  place  to 
to  be  chaste,  and  to  restrain  themselves  from  all  that  is  evil.... 
For  it  is  a  good  thing  to  get  above  the  lusts  of  the  world,  seeing 
every  lust  wars  against  the  spirit;  and  that  neither  fornicators^ 
nor  effeminate^  nor  abusers  of  themselves  ivith  7nankind  shall 
inherit  the  king'dojn  of  God^^  nor  whoever  commits  base  things. 

5.  Wherefore  it  is  necessary  that  ye  abstain  from  all  these 
things,  being  s'.:bject  to  the  presbyters  and  deacons,  as  to  God 
and  Christ :  that  the  virgins  also  walk  with  a  chaste  and  un- 
defiled  conscience.  Let  the  presbyters  be  tender  and  merciful, 
compassionate  towards  all,  reducing  those  that  are  in  error,  vi- 
siting all  that  arc  weak,  not  negligent  of  the  widow  and  the  or- 
phan, and  him  that  is  poor,  but  ever  providing  what  is  honest 
in  the  sight  of  (iod  and  men ;  abstaining  from  all  wrath,  respect 
of  persons,  and  unrighteous  judgment,  being  far  from  covetous- 
ness,  not  hastily  believing  a  report  against  any  man,  not  rigid 
in  judgment,  knowing  that  we  are  all  faultv,  and  obnoxious  to 
punishment.  If  therefore  we  stand  in  need  to  pray  the  Lord 
that  he  would  foi-give  us,  Ave  ourselves  ought  also  to  forgive. 
For  we  are  before  the  eyes  of  him,  who  is  Lord  and  God,  and 
all  must  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christy  and  every  one 
give  an  account  of  himself}  Wherefore  let  us  serve  him  with 
all  fear  and  reverence,  as  he  himself  has  commanded  us,  and  as 
the  apostles  have  preached  and  taught  us,  and  the  prophets  who 
foreshowed  the  coming  of  our  Lord.  Be  zealous  of  that  which 
is  good,  abstaining  from  offences  and  false  brethren,  and  those 
who  bear  the  name  of  the  Lord  in  hypocrisy,  who  seduce  and 
deceive  vain  men.  For  every  one^  that  conf-sscth  not  that 
fesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  fesh^  is  Antichrist ;m  and  he  who 
doth  not  acknowledge  the  martyrdom  of  the  cross,  is  of  the 
devil,  and  whoever  shall  pervert  the  oracles  of  the  Lord  to  his 
private  lusts,  and  shall  say,  that  there  is  neither  resurrection  nor 
judgment  to  come,  that  man  is  the  frst-born  of  Satan.  Leav- 
ing therefore  the  vanity  of  many,  and  their  false  doctrines,  let  us 
return  to  that  doctrine,  that  from   the  beginning  was  delivered 

k  1  Cor,  vi.  9.  10.        IRom,  xiv.  9,  10.        m  1  Johniv.  3.    2EpLst.  v.  T. 


264  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP, 

to  us  :  let  us  be  watchful  in  prayers,  persevering  in  fasting,  and 
supplications,  beseeching  the  all-seeing  God  that  he  would  not 
lead  us  into  temptation  ;  as  the  Lord  has  said,  the  spirit  iiideed 
is  xvillijig^  but  tJic  Jlesh  is  weak."  Let  us  unweariedly  and  con- 
stantly adhere  to  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  our  hope  and  the  pledge 
of  our  righteousness,  iv/io  bare  our  sins  in  his  oxvn  body  on  the 
tree^  zvho  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth,°  h\xt 
endured  all  things  for  our  sakes,  that  we  might  live  through  him. 
Let  us  then  imitate  his  patience,  and  if  we  suffer  for  his  name, 
we  gloi'ify  him  ;  for  such  a  pattern  he  set  us  in  himself,  and  this 
we  have  believed  and  entertained. 

6.  I  exhort  you  therefore  all,  that  ye  be  obedient  to  the  word 
of  righteousness,  and  that  vou  exercise  all  manner  of  patience, 
as  you  have  seen  it  set  forth  before  your  eyes,  not  only  in  the 
blessed  Ignatius,  and  Zosimus,  and  Rufus,  but  in  others  also 
among  you,  and  in  Paul  himself,  and  the  rest  of  the  apostles  : 
being  assured  that  all  these  have  not  run  in  vain,  but  in  faith 
and  righteousness,  and  are  arrived  at  the  place,  due  and  pro- 
mised to  them  by  the  Lord,  of  whose  sufferings  they  were  made 
partakers.  For  the)'  loved  not  this  present  Avorld,  but  him  who 
both  died,  and  was  raised  up  again  by  God  for  us.  Stand  fast 
therefore  in  these  things,  and  follow  the  example  of  the  Lord, 
being  firm  and  immutable  in  the  faith,  lovers  of  the  brethren, 
and  kindly  affectionate  one  towards  another,  united  in  the  truth, 
carrying  yourselves  meekly  to  each  other,  despising  no  man.... 
When  it  is  in  your  power  to  do  good,  defer  it  not,  for  alms  dc- 
Irocrethfrom  death.  Be  all  of  you  subject  one  to  another,  having 
your  conversation  honest  among  the  Gentiles;  that  both  you 
yourselves  may  receive  praise  by  your  good  works,  and  that 
God  be  not  blasphemed  through  you.  For  wo  unto  him,  by 
whom  the  name  of  the  Lord  is  blasphemed.  Wherefore  teach 
all  men  sobriety,  and  be  vourselvcs  conversant  in  it. 

7.  I  am  exceedinglv  troubled  for  Valens,  who  was  some- 
times ordained  a  presbyter  among  }"OU,  that  he  so  little  under- 
stands the  place  wherein  he  was  set.  I  therefore  warn  you. 
that  you  abstain  from  covetousness,  and  that  ye  be  chaste  and 
true.  Keep  yourselves  from  every  evil  v,'ork.  But  he  that  iij 
these  things  cannot  govern  himself,  how  shall  he  preach  it  to 
another  ?  If  a  man  refrain  not  from  covetousness,  he  will  be  de- 
filed with  idolatry,  and  shall  be  judged  among  the  Heathen.... 
Who  is  ignorant  of  the  judgment  of  the  Lord  ?  Know  ye  not 
that  the  saints  shall  judge  the  xvorld  ?\>  as  Paul  teaches.  But  I 
have  neither  found  any  such  thing  in  you,  nor  heard  any  such 
of  you,  among  whom  the  blessed  Paul  laboured,  and  who  are 

n  Matt.  xwi.  41.  o  1  Pet.  ii.  22,  2"4,  p  Cor.  vk  2. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  POLYCARP.  2QS 

in  the  bc-jinning  of  his  epistle.  For  of  you  he  boasts  in  all 
those  churches,  which  only  knew  God  at  that  time,  whom  as  yet 
we  had  not  known.  I  am  therefore,  brethren,  greatly  troubled 
for  him,  and  for  his  wife,  the  Lord  give  them  true  repentance. 
Be  ye  also  sober  as  to  this  matter,  and  account  not  such  as  ene- 
mies, but  restore  them  as  weak  and  erring  members,  that  the 
whole  body  of  you  may  be  saved ;  for  in  so  doing,  ye  build  up 
\»ourselves. 

8.  I  trust  that  ye  are  well  exercised  in  the  holy  scriptures, 
and  that  nothing  is  hid  from  you  ;  a  thing  as  yet  not  granted 
to  me.  As  it  is  said  in  these  places,  be  angry  and  sin  not : 
and,  let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your  ivrath.  Blessed  is  l»e 
that  is  mindful  of  these  things,  which  I  believe  you  are.  The 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  Christ  Jesus 
the  eternal  High-priest,  and  Son  of  God,  build  you  up  in  faith 
and  truth,  and  in  all  meekness  that  you  may  be  v.ithout  anger, 
in  patience,  forbearance,  long-suffering,  and  chastltv,  and  give 
you  a  portion  and  inheritance  amongst  his  saints,  and  to  us  to- 
gether with  you,  and  to  all  under  heaven,  who  shall  believe  in 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  his  Father,  who  raised  him  from 
the  dead.  Pray  for  all  saints.  Pray  also  for  kings,  magistrates, 
and  princes,  and  even  for  them  that  hate  and  persecute  you,  and 
for  the  enemies  of  the  cross,  that  }our  fruit  may  be  manifest 
in  all,  that  you  may  be  complete  in  him. 

9.  Ye  wrote  unto  me,  both  ye  and  Ignatius,  that  if  any  one 
go  into  Syria^  he  might  carry  your  letters  along  with  him  : 
which  I  will  do  so  soon  as  I  shall  have  a  convenient  opportu- 
nity, either  myself,  or  by  some  other,  whom  I  will  send  upon 
your  errand.  According  to  your  request  we  have  sent  you 
those  epistles  of  Ignatius,  which  he  wrote  to  us,  and  as  many 
others  of  his  as  we  had  by  us,  which  are  annexed  to  this  epistle, 
by  which  ye  may  be  greatly  profited.  For  they  contain  in  them 
faith,  and  patience,  and  whatever  else  is  necessary  to  build  you  up 
m  our  Lord.  Send  us  word  what  }ou  certainly  know  both  con- 
cerning Ignatius  himself,  and  his  companions.  These  things 
have  1  written  unto  }  ou  by  Crescens,  whom  I  have  hitherto 
commended  to  you,  and  do  still  recommend.  For  he  has  nn- 
blamably  conversed  among  us,  as  also  I  believe  amongst  you. 
His  sister  also  ye  shall  have  recommended,  when  she  shall  come 
unto  you.  Be  ye  safe  in  the  Lord  JesHS  Christ.  Grace  be 
with  vou  all.     Ainen. 


L  1 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  QUADRATUS, 

BISHOP  OF  ATHENS. 


His  birth  place  inquired  into.  His  learning.  His  education  under  the 
apostles.  Publius  bishop  of  Athens.  Quadi*atus  his  succession  ni  that 
see.  The  degenerate  state  of  that  church  at  his  coming  to  it.  His  in- 
defatigable zeal  and  industry  in  its  reformation.  Its  purity  and  flou- 
rishing condition  noted  by  Origen.  Quadratus's  being  endowed  with  a 
spirit  of  prophecy,  and  a  power  of  miracles.  This  person  proved  to  be 
the  same  with  our  Athenian  bishop.  The  troubles  raised  against  the 
Christians  under  the  reign  of  Hadrian.  Hadrian's  character.  His 
disposition  towards  i-eligion,  and  l)ase  thoughts  of  the  Christians.  His 
fondness  for  the  learning  and  religion  of  Gi-eece.  His  coming  to  Athens, 
and  kindness  to  that  city.  His  being  initiated  into  the  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries. These  mysteries  what,  and  the  degrees  of  initiation.  Several 
addresses  made  to  the  emperor  in  behalf  of  the  Christians.  Quadra- 
tus's Apologetic.  Ser.  Granianus's  letter  to  Hadrian  concerning  the 
Cliristians.  The  emperor's  rescript.  His  good  opinion  afterwards  of 
Christ  and  his  religion,  Quadratus  driven  from  his  charge.  His  mar- 
t\rdom  and  place  of  burial. 

1.  WHETHER  St.  Quadratus  was  born  at  Athens, 
no  notices  of  church  antiquity  enable  us  to  determine  : 
though  the  thing  itself  be  not  improbable,  his  education 
and  residence  there,  and  the  government  of  that  church 
seeming  to  give  some  colour  to  it.  And  as  nature  had 
furnished  him  with  incomparable  parts,  [excellens  inge- 
nium^  as  "St.  Hierom  says  of  him)  so  the  place  gave  him 
mighty  advantages  in  his  education,  to  be  thoroughly 
trained  up  in  the  choicest  parts  of  learning,  and  most  ex- 

a  De  Script,  in  Qjiadrat 


268  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  QUADRATU3. 

cellent  institutions  of  philosophy,  upon  which  account 
the  ''Greeks  truly  style  him,  ivSo^L  vroxvi^ogi,  a  man  of  great 
learning  and  knowledge.  He  became  acquainted  with 
the  doctrines  and  principles  of  Christianity,  by  being 
brought  up  under  apostolical  instruction,  for  so  "Euse- 
bius  and  '^St.  Hierom  more  than  once  tell  us,  that  he 
was  an  auditor  and  a  disciple  of  the  apostles ;  which 
must  be  understood  of  the  longer  lived  apostles,  and  par- 
ticularly of  St.  John,  whose  scholar  in  all  probability  he 
was,  as  were  also  Ignatius,  Folycarp,  Papias,  and  others  : 
and  therefore  *Eusebius  places  him  among  those  that  had 
TOT  -nrgMTav  t*|/v,  that  wcrc  of  the  very  first  rank  and  order 
among  the  apostles'  successors.  There  are  that  make 
him,  and  that  too  constituted  by  St.  John  (though  I  con- 
fess I  know  not  by  what  authority,  the  ancients  being 
W'holly  silent  in  this  matter)  bishop  of  Philadelphia,  one 
of  the  seven  famous  churches  of  Asia,  and  at  that  time, 
when  St.  John  sent  his  epistle  to  that  church :  which  I 
pass  by  as  a  groundless  and  precarious  assertion,  seeing 
they  might  with  equal  warrant  have  made  him  bishop  of 
any  other  place. 

2.  Under  the  reign  of  Trajan,  as  is  probable,  though 
Baronius  places  it  under  Hadrian,  ^n?i  Imp.  VI.  ^Pub- 
lius,  bishop  of  Athens,  suffered  mart}  rdom,  who  is  thought 
by  some  to  have  been  that  very  Publius  whom  St.  Paul 
converted  in  the  island  Melita  in  his  voyage  to  Rome, 
and  who  afterwards  succeeded  Dionysius  the  Areopagite 
in  the  see  of  Athens.  To  him  succeeded  our  Quadra- 
tus,  (as  ^Dionysius  bishop  of  Corinth,  who  lived  not  long 
after  that  time,  infonns  us)  who  found  the  state  of  that 
church  in  a  bad  condition  at  his  coming  to  it.  For  upon 
Publius's  martyrdom,  and  the  persecution  that  attended 
it,  the  people  were  generally  dispersed  and  fled,  as  what 
wonder,  if  when  the  shepherd  is  smitte?i,  the  sheep  be  scat- 
tered, and  go  astray?  their  public  and  solemn  assemblies 
were  deserted,  their  zeal  grown  cold  and  languid,  their 
lives  and  manners  corrupted,  and  there  wanted  but  little 

b  Men.  Graec.  T"  kh'  tou  SsV/s/^C.       c  KsatT^iT®'  o  iT-gj?  t£?v  'Ato^oxsv  axKr"':- 
Euseb.  xgii-.  Kstv.  ad  ann.  PK/'.  p.  211.  d  Hier.  de  Scrip,  in  Qtiadr.  Ik 

Ernst,  ad  Magn.  Orat.  torn.  2.  p.  327.        e  H.  Eccl.  1.  3.  c.  37.  p.  109.         f  Eu- 
esD.  .1.  4.  c.  23.  p.  1'43.        g  Epl%t.  ad  Athcn.  iipud  Eu^eb.  loc.  citat. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.   QUADRATU-S.  269 

(jf  a  total  apostasy  from  the  Christian  faith.  This  good 
man  therefore,  set  himself  with  a  mighty  zeal  to  retrieve 
the  ancient  spirit  of  religion,  he  re-settled  order  and  dis* 
cipline,  brought  back  the  people  to  the  public  assem- 
blies, kindled  and  bkw  up  their  faith  into  an  holy  flame. 
Nor  did  he  content  himself  with  a  bare  reformation  of 
what  was  amiss,  but  with  infinite  diligence  preached  the 
faith,  and  by  daily  concerts  enlarged  the  bounds  of  his 
church,  so  that  (as  the  ''Greek  ritulas  express  it)  the 
sages  and  wise  men  of  Greece  being  convinced  by  his 
doctrines  and  wise  discourses,  embraced  the  gospel, 
and  acknowledged  Christ  to  be  the  creator  of  the  world, 
and  the  great  wisdom  and  power  of  God.  And  in  a 
short  time  reduced  it  to  such  an  excellent  temj)er,  that 
'Origen  (who  lived  some  years  after)  demonstrating  the 
admirable  efficacy  of  the  Christian  faith  over  the  minds 
of  men,  and  its  triumph  over  all  other  religions  in  the 
world,  instances  in  this  very  church  of  Athens  for  its 
good  order  and  constitution,  its  meekness,  quietness, 
and  constancy,  and  its  care  to  approve  itself  to  God,  in- 
finitely beyond  the  common  assembly  at  Athens,  \\hich 
was  factious  and  tumultuary,  and  no  way  to  be  compared 
with  the  Christian  church  in  that  city  ;  that  the  church- 
es of  Christ  when  examined  by  the  heathen  convocations, 
shone  like  lights  in  the  world,  and  that  every  one  must 
confess  that  the  worst  parts  of  the  Christian  church 
were  better  than  the  best  of  their  popular  assemblies  ; 
that  the  senators  of  the  church  (as  he  calls  them)  were 
iit  to  go\ern  in  any  part  of  the  church  of  God,  while 
the  vulgar  senate  had  nothing  worthy  of  that  honourable 
disrnitv,  nor  were  raised  above  the  manners  of  the  com- 
mon  people. 

3.  Thus  excellently  constituted  was  the  Athenian 
church  ;  for  v/hich  it  was  chiefly  beholden  to  the  indefa- 
tigable industry,  and  the  prudent  care  and  conduct  of 
its  present  bishop,  whose  success  herein  was  not  a  little 
advantaged  by  those  extraordinary  supernatural  powers 
which  God  had  conferred  upon  him.     That  he  v/as  en- 

h  Men.  Grace,  ubi supr.  i  Contr.  Ccls.  1.  3.  p.  128. 


270  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.   QUADRATU-S. 

dued  with  a  spirit  of  prophecy,  of  speaking  suddenly 
upon  great  and  emergent  occasions,  in  interpreting  ob- 
scure and  difficult  scriptures,  but  especially  of  foretel- 
ling future  events,  we  have  the  express  testimonies  of  Eu- 
sebius"",  affirming  him  to  have  lived  at  the  same  time  with 
Philip's  virgin  daughters,  and  to  have  had  'nr^o<;,>ntKov  xH'^f^** 
the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  of  another  author'  much  anci- 
enter  then  he,  who  confuting  the  error  of  the  Cataphr}  ges, 
reckons  him  among  the  prophets  who  flourished  under 
the  economy  of  the  gospel.  I  know  a  learned  ""man 
would  fain  jjersuade  us,  that  the  Quadratus  who  had  the 
prephetic  gifts,  was  a  person  distinct  from  our  Athenian 
bishop.  But  the  grounds  he  preceeds  upon  seem  to 
me  very  weak  and  inconciuding.  For  whereas  he  says, 
that  that  Quadratus  is  not  by  Eusebius  styled  a  bishop, 
who  knows  not  that  persons  are  not  in  every  place  men- 
tioned under  all  their  capacities?  and  less  need  was  there 
for  it  here,  Quadratus  when  first  spoken  of  by  Euse- 
bius, not  being  then  bishop  of  Athens,  and  so  not  pro- 
per to  be  taken  notice  of  in  that  capacity.  Nor  is  his 
other  exception  of  greater  weight,  that  the  prophetic 
Quadratus  did  not  survive  the  times  of  Adrian  whereas 
ours  was  in  the  same  time  with  Dionysius,  bishop  of 
Cornith,  who  lived  under  M.  Antoninus,  and  speaks 
of  him  as  his  contemporary,  and  lately  ordained 
bishop  of  Athens.  But  whoever  looks  into  that  pas- 
sage of  Pionysius",  will  find  no  foundation  for  such  an 
assertion,  but  rather  the  quite  contrary,  that  he  speaks 
of  him  as  if  dead  before  his  time,  as  I  believe  any  one 
that  impartially  considers  the  place,  must  needs  confess. 
Not  to  say,  that  St.  Hierom  and  all  after  him  without  any 
scruple  make  them  to  be  the  same.  So  that  we  may 
still  leave  him  his  gift  of  prophecy,  which  procured  him 
so  much  reverence  while  he  lived,  and  so  much  honour 
to  his  memory  since  his  death.  To  which  may  be  add- 
ed what  the  Greeks   in  their  Menreon"  not  improbably 

k  H.Eccl.l.  .'5.  c.3r.  p.  109.        1  Ap.  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.  17.  p.  183        m  Vales. 
Annot.  and  Eu  eb.l.  4.  c.  23.  p.  81.  n  Ap  Eiiseb.  1.  4  c  23.  p.  143. 

O    TiKm   r<t  <fcCi^d,    KzSeiTf,      ^efj/jitltt,  iTlViJC  «(:  CT<V'v    ^^unv  ivitytc,  eii  'AttoT^- 
7i,&  ^iz?,ii7/iQr ,  u;  fiTiIi;,  *fgaV^*f>  'eg»T«'i«-  Men.  Grxc.  k)C.  Bupr.  cit. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  QUADRATUS.  271 

say  of  him,  that  he  was  furnished  with  a  powder  of  work- 
ing miracles,  and  that  by  his  prayers  he  ruined  the  idola- 
trous temples  of  the  heathens,  whereby  he  mightily  con- 
founded the  infidels,  and  brought  in  great  numbers  to 
the  faith. 

4.  But  the  fair  weather  and  prosperity  of  the  church 
was  not  wont  to  last  long  in  those  days.  They  had  en- 
joyed a  short  tranquillity  about  the  latter  end  of  Trajan's 
reign,  but  now,  alas,  under  Adrian,  his  successor  the 
weather  changed,  and  there  arose  (as  ^St.  Hierom  calls 
it)  a  most  grievous  and  heavy  persecution,  and  which 
''Sulpitius  Severus  expressly  says  was  the  fourth  perse- 
cution. And  indeed,  how  grievous  it  was,  sufficiently 
appears  from  those  many  thousands  of  martyrs  that  then 
suffered,  mentioned  in  the  ancient  martyrologies  of  the 
church ;  yea,  even  at  "^Rome  itself  Eustachius  and  his 
wife  Theopistis  with  their  two  sons,  are  said  by  the  em- 
peror's command  to  have  been  thrown  to  the  lions,  and 
when  the  mercy  of  the  savage  beasts  had  spared  them, 
they  were  ordered  to  be  burnt  to  death  in  the  belly  of  a 
brazen  bull.  It  is  true  'Tertuliian  says  that  Adrian 
published  no  laws  or  edicts  against  the  Christians  ;  but 
the  laws  enacted  by  Trajan  being  yet  unrepealed,  or  not 
laid  aside,  there  would  not  want  those  who  would  put 
them  in  execution.  We  find  'that  though  Trajan  com- 
manded a  stop  to  be  put  to  the  persecution  against  Chris- 
tians, yet  even  then  both  people  and  governors  of  pro- 
vinces went  on  with  their  accustomed  cruelties,  and 
though  there  was  not  a  general,  there  were  particular 
and  provincial  persecutions.  And  no  doubt  it  was  much 
more  so  after  his  death,  when  Adrian  came  to  the  em- 
pire, whom  they  knew  too  well,  to  think  he  would  be 
an  enemy  to  such  proceedings.  For  whatever  some 
have  said  concerning  the  clemency  and  good  nature  of 
that  prince,  there  are  "others  that  plainly  affirm,  that  it 
was  but  personated  and  put  on,  that  he  really  was  in  his 

.  ,p  Epist.  ad  Mag.  uhi   supr.  q  Hist.  sacr.  1.  2.  p.  142.         r  Vil.  Rom. 

Martyr,  ad  Septemb.  XX.  p.  583.  s  Apol.  c.  6.  p.  6.  t  Euseb.  1.  3-  c  33. 
p.  105.  u  Mar.  Maxim,  ap.  ^£1.  Spart.  in  vk.   Adrian,  c.  20.  p.  88  vid. 

Dion.  I,  69.  non  long',  ab  init. 


272  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  ^UADRATUS. 

nature  cruel,  and  that  (according  to  the  true  genius  of 
superstition)  whatever  works  of  piety  he  did,  it  was  for 
fear  iest  the  same  evil  fate  should  happen  to  him,  that 
fell  upon  Domitian  ;  and  of  his  cruelty  instances  enough 
may  be  met  with  in  the  writers  of  his  life.  In  short, 
there  was  in  him  a  strange  mixture  and  contemperation 
of  vice  and  virtue,  it  being  a  true  character  which  the 
historian''  gives  of  him,  that  he  was  severe  and  cheerful, 
grave  and  affable,  deliberate  and  yet  eagerly  wanton, 
covetous  and  liberal,  cruel  and  merciful,  a  great  dissem- 
bler, and  perpetually  inconstant  in  all  his  actions. 

5.  For  religion  he  was  a  deligent  and  superstitious 
observer  ''of  their  own  rites  of  worship,  but  hated  and 
despised  all  strange  and  foreign  religions,  and  especially 
the  Christian.  Indeed  how  well  he  thought  of  the 
Christians,  appears  sufficiently  from  his  ''letter  to  Ser- 
vianus  the  consul,  written  a  little  after  his  return  out  of 
Egypt,  wherein  he  gives  the  Christians  there  so  lewd 
and  base  a  character  ;  not  sticking  to  affirm  that  the 
people,  yea  their  priests,  their  bishops,  and  their  very 
patriarch  himself  would  worship  both  Christ  and  Sera- 
pis,  and  that  they  were  a  most  turbulent,  vain,  and  inju- 
rious generation.  From  which  epistle  it  seems  plain 
to  me,  that  at  his  being  there,  he  had  severely  persecuted 
the  Christians,  and  compelled  some  light  or  false  profes- 
sors to  worship  the  deities  of  the  country,  which  proba- 
bly gave  ground  to  his  censure,  and  to  charge  the  im- 
putation upon  all.  And  since  he  loooked  upon  the 
Christians  as  such  a  vile  sort  of  men,  it  is  the  less  to  be 
wondred,  that  he  should  connive  at,  or  encourage  their 
being  persecuted  in  other  parts  of  the  empire.  He 
principally  applied  himself  to  the  studies  of  ^Greece, 
whereof  he  was  so  strangely  fond,  that  he  was  commonly 
styled  Grasculus,  the  Little  Greek  :  this  made  him  de- 
light much  in  those  parts,  and  to  converse  with  the 
learning  and  philosophy  of  those  countries.  About  the 
sixth  or  seventh  year  of  his  reign  he  came  to  Athens. 

V  Spartian.  ibc-  14.  p.  69.         w    Id.  ib.  c.  -2.   p.  96.  x  Ext.it' ap.    I'l. 

Vopisc  in  vit.  Saturn,  p.  959.         y  Spart.  c.  J.  p.  4. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  QUADRATUS.  273 

where  he  took  upon  him  the  place  and  honour  of  an  ar- 
chon,  celebrated  their  solemn  sports,  and  gave  many  par- 
ticular laws  and  privileges  to  that  city,  but  especially  was 
entered  into  their  Eleusinian  mysteries,  accounted  the 
most  sacred  and  venerable  of  the  whole  Gentile  world, 
and  which  particularly  carried  the  title  of  The  mysteries. 
They  were  solemn  and  religious  rites  performed  to  Ceres 
in  memory  of  great  benefits  received  from  her,  the  candi- 
dates whereof  were  stj-led  (^6^^,  and  to  the  full  participa- 
tion whereof  they  were  many  times  not  admitted  till  af- 
ter a  five  years  preparatory  trial,  which  had  many  several 
steps,  and  each  its  peculiar  rites  :  first  there  were  TriySufjM 
xriS^agfl-Mf,  the  com?7ion purgations,  then  di  dTro-fniiT^oi,  those  that 
were  more  secret,  next  the  ■^os-d.^rut,  or  stations,  then  the 
/xu^iViK,  the  initiations,  and  lastly,  (which  was  the  top  of 
all)  the  'f!ro7r]i~iii,  or  the  inspections.  Others  reckon  them 
thus  ;  that  first  there  were  the  t*  xa^otgo-;^,  the  puriJicationSy 
and  expiations;  then  followed  the  T«>/Kgi /aur^-'g**,  the  lesser 
mysteries,  when  they  were  solemnly  initiated  and  taken 
in  ;  and  lastly,  after  some  time  they  arrived  at  the  greater 
mysteries,  the  -r*  i^oTriiKU.,  which  were  the  most  hidden  so- 
lemnities of  all,  when  they  w^ere  admitted  to  a  full  sight 
of  the  whole  mystic  scene,  and  thenceforth  called  "ETi^r?*/, 
or  inspectors,  and  were  obliged,  under  a  solemn  oath,  not 
to  discover  these  mysterious  rites  to  any.  We  cannot 
well  suppose  that  the  emperor  Adrian  was  put  to  observe 
-those  tedious  methods  of  initiation,  their  mystic  laws 
w'ere  no  doubt  dispensed  with  for  so  extraordinary  a  per- 
son, and  he  at  once  became  both  a  candidate  and  an  'Evi,vi>ie, 
a  thing  which  they  sometimes  granted  in  some  extraor- 
dinary cases.  And  not  content  to  do  thus  at  Athens,  ^St. 
Hierom  tells  us  he  was  initiated  into  almost  all  the  sa- 
cred rites  of  Greece,  whence  "Tertullian  justly  styles 
him,  the  searcher  into  all  curious  and  hidden  mysteries,  and 
''Dion  himself  tells  us  of  him,  that  he  was  infinitely  curi- 
ous, and  strangely  addicted  to  all  sorts  of  divination  and 
mae:ic  arts. 


z  He  Script,  in  Q^iadrat.  a  Loc.  supr.  cit.  h  Excerpt,  ex  iDion.  a 

^'alcs  edi'i.  u.  "14. 

M  ni 


274  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  QUADRATUS. 

6;  At  Athens  Adrian  staid  the  whole  winter,  where 
his  busy  and  superstitious  zeal  being  taken  notice  of; 
was  warrant  enough  without  further  order  for  active  zea- 
lots to  pursue  and  oppress  the  Christians,  the  persecu- 
tion growing  so  fierce  and  hot,  that  the  Christians  were 
forced  to  remonstrate  and  declare  their  case  to  the  em- 
peror ;  among  whom  besides  ""Aristides  a  Christian  phi- 
losopher at  this  time  at  Athens,  who  in  an  apology  ad- 
dressed himself  to  Adrian,  our  Quadratus  presented  an 
apologetic  to  the  emperor,  defending  the  Christian  reli- 
gion from  the  calumnies  and  excepticns  of  its  enemies, 
and  vindicating  it  from  those  pretences,  upon  which  ill 
minded  men  sought  to  ruin  and  undo  the  innocent  Chris- 
tians, wherein  also  he  particularly  took  notice  of  our 
Saviour's  miracles,  his  curing  diseases,  and  raising  the 
dead,  some  instances  whereof,  he  says,  were  alive  in  his 
time.  Besides  this  apology  (wherein,  as  Eusebius  says, 
he  gave  large  evidences  both  of  his  excellent  paits,  and 
true  apostolic  doctrine)  it  is  probable  he  left  no  other 
writings  behind  him,  none  being  mentioned  by  any  of  the 
ancients  :  where  I  cannot  but  note  the  strange  heedless- 
ness of  the  compilers  of  the  ^centuries,  where  they  tell  us 
out  of  Eusebius,  that  besides  the  apology,  he  composed 
another  excellent  book  called  Syngramma,  when  nothing 
can  be  more  plain,  than  that  by  that  writing  Eusebius 
means  not  a  distinct  book,  but  that  very  apologetic  ora- 
tion, which  he  there  speaks  of:  and  yet  a  modern  Ger- 
man ^professor  (who  frequently  transcribes  their  errors  as 
well  as  their  labours)  securely  swallows  it,  purely  (I  sup- 
pose upon  their  authority  ;)  though  strange  it  is,  that  he 
could  read  that  passage  in  Eusebius  himself,  which  he 
seems  to  have  done,  and  not  palpably  feel  the  mistake. 

7.  It  happened  about  this  time  that  Serenius  Graninaus 
the  proconsul  of  Asia,  wrote  ^letters  to  the  emperor,  re- 
presenting to  him  the  injustice  of  the  common  proceed- 
ings against  Christians,  how  unfit  it  was  that  without  any 
legal  trial,  or  crime  laid  to  their  charge,  they  should  be 

c  Euseb.  1.  4.  c.  3.  p  116.  Hleron.  ubi  supr.  &  in  Epist.  ad  Mngn.  Orator. 
A  Cent.  II.  cap.  10.  col  152.  e  Bcbel.  Antiq.  Ecclrs.  Secul.  2.  Artie.  I.  p 
i83.  f  J.  Mart.  Apol.  II.  p.  99.  &  ap.  Euseb.  I.  4.  c.  3.  p.  122. 


THE   LIFE  OF  ST,  QUADRATUS.  275 

put  to  death  merely  to  gratify  the  unreasonable  and  tu- 
multuary clamours  of  the  people.  With  this  letter  and  the 
apologies  that  had  been  offered  him  by  the  Christians, 
the  keenness  of  the  emperor's  fury  was  taken  off,  and  care 
was  taken  that  greater  moderation  should  be  used  to- 
wards them.  To  which  purpose  he  despatched  away  ^to 
Fundanus,  Granianus's  successor  in  the  proconsulship 
of  Asia  this  following  rescript. 

*'    ADRIAN    EMPEROF.,   TO   MIXUCIUS   FUNDAXUS, 

"  I  received  the  letters  which  were  sent  me  by  the 
most  excellent  Serenius  Granianus,  your  predecessor. 
Nor  do  I  look  upon  it  as  a  matter  fit  to  be  passed  over 
without  due  inquiry,  that  the  men  may  not  be  needlessly 
disquieted,  nor  informers  have  occasion  and  encourage- 
ment of  fraudulent  accusations  ministered  unto  them. 
Wherefore  if  the  subjects  of  our  provinces  be  able  open- 
ly to  appear  to  their  indictments  against  the  Christians, 
so  as  to  answer  to  them  before  the  public  tribunal,  let 
them  take  that  course,  and  not  deal  by  petition  and  mere 
noise  and  clamour  :  it  being  much  fitter,  if  any  accusation 
be  brought,  that  you  should  have  the  cognizance  of  it. 
If  any  one  shall  prefer  an  indictment,  and  prove  that  they 
have  transgressed  the  laws,  then  give  you  sentence 
against  them  according  to  the  quality  of  the  crime.  But 
if  it  shall  appear,  that  he  brought  it  only  out  of  spite  and 
malice,  take  care  to  punish  that  man  according  to  the 
heinousness  of  so  mischievous  a  design." 
The  same  rescripts  (as  ''Melito  bishop  of  Sardis,  who  pre- 
sented an  apology  to  M.  Antoninus  informs  us)  Adrian 
sent  to  several  other  governors  of  provinces.  Nay  was 
so  far  wrought  into  a  good  mood,  that  if  it  be  true  what 
their  own  historian  reports  of  him',  he  designed  to  build 
a  temple  to  Christ,  and  to  receive  him  into  the  number 
of  their  gods,  and  that  he  commanded  temples  to  be  built 
in  all  cities  without  images,  which  were  for  a  long  time 
after  called  Adriani ;  but  was  prohibited  to  go  on  by 

g  Justin,  ib.  Euseb.  c.  9.  p.  123.  h  Ap.  Euseb.  1.  4.  c.  26.  p.  148. 

i  Lamprid.  in  vit.  Alex.  Saver,  c.  43.  p.  568, 


276  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  QUADRATUS. 

some,  who  having  consulted  the  oracle,  had  been  told, 
that  if  this  succeeded  according  to  some  men's  desires, 
the  temples  would  be  deserted  and  all  men  become  Chris- 
tians. 

8.  What  became  of  St.  Quadratus  after  Adrian's  de- 
parture from  Athens,  we  find  not  more  than  what  the 
•"Greeks  in  their  Menceon  relate,  that  by  the  violence  of 
persecutors  he  was  driven  from  his  charge  at  Athens,  and 
being  first  set  upon  by  stones,  then  tormented  by  fire, 
and  several  other  punishments,  he  at  last  under  Adrian 
(probably  about  the  latter  end  of  his  reign)  received  the 
crown  of  martyrdom'.  To  what  place  he  fled  when  he 
left  Athens,  and  where  he  suffered  martyrdom  is  uncer- 
tain, unless  it  were  at  Magnesia,  a  city  of  Ionia,  in  Asia 
Minor,  where  the  same  Meuceon  tells  us,  he  preached 
the  gospel,  as  he  did  at  Athens,  and  that  his  body  was 
there  entombed,  and  his  remains  famous  for  miracles 
done  there.  A  place  memorable  for  the  death  of  The- 
mistocles,  that  great  commander  and  citizen  of  Athens, 
banished  also  by  his  own  fellow- citizens,  who  after  his 
bnive  and  honourable  achievements,  did  here  by  a  fatal 
draught  put  a  period  to  his  own  life  ;  where  (as  ""Plu- 
tarch tells  us)  his  posterity  had  certain  honours  and  pri- 
vileges conferred  upon  them  by  the  Magnesians,  and 
which  his  friend  Themistocles  the  Athenian  enjoyed  in 
his  time. 

k  Loc.  supra  cit.  1  A(3-s«  ny-U'^  ^i\o\1n  fxnJ'a.fjiuc  Q'iCut  r  Ko/gatTsyj  0di}>4- 

a-iv  tt^^oYii  hi^ii;.  Men.  ibid.  m  In  vit.  Themist.  p.  12S, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN, 

THE  MARTYR. 


His  vicinity  to  the  apostolic  times.  His  birth-place  and  kindred.  His 
studies.  His  travels  into  Egypt.  To  what  sect  of  philosophy  he  ap- 
plied himself.  The  occasions  and  manner  of  his  strange  conversion  to 
Christianity  related  by  himself.  Christianity  the  only  safe  and  satis- 
factory philosophy.  The  great  influence  which  the  patience  and  forti- 
tude oF  the  Christians  had  upon  his  conversion.  The  force  of  that  ar- 
gument to  persuade  men.  His  vindication  of  himself  from  the  chajges 
of  the  (ientiles.  His  continuance  in  his  philosophic  habit  The  ^ixin- 
<>oy  I'xj^fjiii  what,  and  by  whom  worn.  'O  ^giwoc  i7rtd-iT>i;.  His  coming  to 
Rome,  and  opposing  heretics.  Marcion  who,  and  what  his  principles- 
Justin's  first  apology  to  the  emperors,  and  the  design  of  it.  Antoniiius's 
letter  to  the  common-council  of  Asia  in  favour  of  the  Christians.  This 
showed  not  to  be  the  edict  of  Marcus  Antoninus.  Justin's  journey  into 
the  east,  and  conference  with  Trypho  the  Jew.  Trypho  who.  The 
malice  of  the  Jews  against  the  Christians.  Justin's  return  to  Rome. 
His  contests  with  Crescens  the  philosopher.  Crescens's  temper  ani 
principles.  Justin's  second  apology.  To  whom  presented.  The  occa- 
sion of  it.  M.  Antoninus's  temper.  Justin  foretels  his  own  fate.  The 
acts  of  his  martyrdom.  His  arraignment  before  Rusticus  prxfect  of 
Rome.  Rusticus  who :  the  great  honours  done  him  by  the  emperor. 
Justin's  discourse  with  the  prxfect.  His  freedom  and  courage.  His 
sentence  and  execution.  The  time  of  his  death.  His  great  piety,  cha- 
rity, impartiality,  &c.  His  natural  parts,  and  excellent  learning.  Hi.s 
unskilfulness  in  the  Hebrew  language  noted.  A  late  author  censured. 
His  writings.  The  epistle  to  Diognetus.  Diognetus  who.  His  style 
and  character.  The  unwarrantable  opinions  he  is  charged  with.  His 
indulgence  to  Heathens.  KaT*  xiycv  /3<kv,  what.  Aiyi^  in  what  sense 
used  by  the  ancient  fathers.  How  applied  to  Christ,  how  to  reason. 
His  opinion  concerning  Chiliasm.  The  concurrence  of  the  ancients 
•with  him  herein.  This  by  whom  first  started;  by  whom  corrupted. 
Concerning  the  state  of  the  soul  after  this  life.  The  doctrine  of  the  an- 
cients in  this  matter.  His  assertion  concerning  angels,  maintained  by 
most  of  the  first  fathers.  The  original  of  it.  Their  opinion  concerning 
free  will  showed  not  to  be  opposed  by  them  to  the  grace  of  God.  What 
influence  Justin's  philosophic  education  had  upon  his  opinions.  His 
writings  enumerated. 

1.  JUSTIN  the  martyr  was  one,  as  of  the  most 
learned,  so  of  the  most  early  wrirers  of  the  eastern 
church,  not  long  after  the  apostles,  as  ^Eusebius  says  of 

a  H.  Eccl.  I.  2.  c.  13-  p.  50. 


278  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

him,  near  to  them  ^^jova  *,  agfvs,  say>.  Methodius  ^bishop  of 
Tyre,  both  in  time  ami  virtue.  And  near  indeed,  if 
we  strictly  understand  what  he  ''says  of  himself,  that  he 
was  a  disciple  of  the  apostles  ;  which  surely  is  meant 
either  of  the  apostles  at  large,  as  comprehending  their 
immediate  successors,  or  probabl}^  not  of  the  persons, 
but  doctrine  and  writings  of  the  apostles,  by  which  he 
was  instructed  in  the  knowledge  of  Christianity.  He 
was ''born  at  Neapolis,  a  noted  city  of  Palestine  within 
the  province  of  Samaria,  anciently  called  Sichem,  after- 
wards as^Josephus  tells  us,  by  the  inhabitants  Mabartha, 
(corruptly  by  Tliny  Mamortha)  by  the  Romans  Neapo- 
lis, and  from  a  colony  sent  thither  by  Flavius  Vespasian, 
styled  Flavia  Cssarea.  His  father  was  Priscus,  the  son 
of  Bacchius  (for  so  the  n^tcrKu  ^^  B^xfn,  ton  dm  ^\auieti,  as 
Sylburgius  and  Valesius  observe,  must  necessarily  be 
understood,  implying  the  one  to  have  been  his  father, 
the  other  his  grandfather)  a  Gentile,  and  (as  ""'Sca- 
liger  probably  thinks)  one  of  those  Greeks  which  were 
in  that  colony  transplanted  thither,  who  took  care,  to- 
gether with  religion,  to  have  him  educated  in  all  the 
learning  and  philosophy  of  the  Gentile  world.  And 
indeed  how  great  and  exact  a  master  he  was  in  all  their 
arts  and  learnijig,  how  thoroughly  he  had  digested  the 
best  and  most  useful  notions,  which  their  institutions  of 
philosophy  could  afibrd,  his  writings  at  this  day  are  an 
abundant  evidence. 

2.  In  his  younger  years,  and  as  it  is  probable,  before 
his  conversion  to  Christianity,  he  travelled  into  foreign 
parts  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  studies,  and  particu- 
larly into  Egypt,  the  staple  place  of  all  the  more  myste- 
rious and  recondite  parts  of  learning  and  religion,  and 
therefore  constantly  visited  by  all  the  more  grave  and 
sage  philosophers  among  the  heathens.  That  he  was 
at  "^ Alexandria   himself  assures  us,   where   he   tells  us 


b  Ap.  Phot.  Cod.  CCXXXIV.  col.  921.  c  'Arsmov  yivo/uav®'  /utiS-^iTyn:, 

'  (i/oMaM  iiiticK.a.K&  6-3^iav.  Epist.  ad  Dioj^net.  p,  501.  d  Apol.  II.  p.  55. 

'  e  Ue  Bell.  Jud.  I.  5.  c.  4.  p.  890.  f  H.  Nat.  1.  5.  c.  13.  p.  79. 

g  Animadv.  ad  Eus.  Cluon.  w.  MMCVII.  p.  219. 

h  Parzenes.  ad  Grzec.  p.  14. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  2^9 

what  account  he  received  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 
seventy  translators,  and  was  showed  the  cells  wherein 
they  performed  that  famous  and  elaborate  work,  which 
probably  his  inquisitive  curiosity  as  a  philosopher,  and 
the  reports  he  had  heard  of  it  by  living  among  the  Jews 
had  more  particularly  induced  him  to  inquire  after. 
Among  the  several  sects  of  philosophers,  after  he  had 
run  through  and  surveyed  all  the  forms,  he  pitched  his 
tent  among  the  Platonists,  whose  'notions  were  most 
agreeable  to  the  natural  sentiments  of  his  mind,  and 
which  no  doubt  particularly  disposed  him  for  the  en- 
tertainment of  Christianity,  4iimself  telling  us,  that  the 
principles  of  that  philosophy,  though  not  in  all  things 
alike,  were  yet  not  alien  or  contrary  to  the  doctrines  of 
tht;  Christian  faith.  But,  alas,  he  found  no  satisfaction  to 
his  mind  either  in  this,  or  any  other,  till  he  arrived  at  a 
full  persuasion  of  the  truth  and  divinity  of  that  religion 
which  was  so  much  despised  by  the  wise  and  the  learn- 
ed, so  much  opposed  and  trampled  on  by  the  grandees 
and  powers  of  the  world.  Whereof,  and  of  the  manner 
of  his  conversion  to  the  Christian  religion,  he  has  given 
us  a  very  large  and  punctual  account  in  his  discourse 
with  Trypho.  I  know  this  account  is  suspected  by 
some  to  be  only  a  prosopopoeia,  to  represent  the  grounds 
of  his  becoming  a  Christian  after  the  platonic  mode 
by  way  of  dialogne,  a  way  familiar  with  the  philoso- 
phers of  that  sect.  But  however  it  may  be  granted  that 
some  few  circumstances  might  be  added  to  make  up  the 
decorum  of  the  conference,  yet  I  see  no  reason  (nor  is 
any  thing  offered  to  the  contrary  besides  a  bare  conjec- 
ture) to  question  the  foundation  of  the  story,  whereof 
the  sum  is  briefly  this. 

3.  Being  from  his  youth  acted  by  an  inquisitive  phi- 
losophic genius,  to  make  researches  and  inquiries  after 
truth'  he  first  betook  himself  to  the  stoics,  but  not  sa- 
tisfied with  his  master,  he  left  him,  and  went  to  a  peripa- 
tetic tutor,  whose  sordid  covetousness  soon  made  him 

i  Apol.  I.  (revera  II.)  pag.  50.        k  Ibid,  pag  51.        I  9ialf)g»cum  Trvph- 
p.  218.  &.C. 


280  THE   LIFE   OF   ST.  JUSTIN. 

conclude  that  truth  could  not  dwell  with  him,  accord- 
ingly he  turned  himself  over  to  a  Pythagorean,  who  re- 
quiring the  preparatory  knowledge  of  music,  astronomy, 
and  geometry,  him  he  quickly  deserted,  and  last  of  all 
delivered  himself  over  to  the  institution  of  an  eminent 
platonist,  lately  come  to  reside  at  Neapolis  ;  with  whose 
intellectual  notions  he  was  greatly  taken,  and  resolved 
for  some  time  to  give  up  himself  to  solitude  and  contem- 
plation. Walking  out  therefore  into  a  solitary  place  by 
the  sea  side,  there  met  him  a  grave  ancient  man,  of  a 
venerable  aspect,  who  fell  into  discourse  with  him.  'J'he 
dispute  between  them  was  concerning  the  excellency  of 
philosophy  in  general,  and  of  Platonism  in  particular  ; 
which  Justin  asserted  to  be  the  only  true  way  to  happi- 
ness, and  of  knowing  and  seeing  God.  This  grave  per- 
son refutes  at  large,  and  at  last  comes  to  show  him,  who 
were  the  most  likely  persons  to  set  him  in  the  right  way. 
He  tells  him,  that  there  were  long  before  his  reputed 
philosophers,  certain  blessed  and  holy  men,  lovers  of 
God,  and  divinely  inspired,  cahed  prophets,  who  fore- 
told things  which  have  since  come  to  pass  ;  who  alone 
understood  the  truth,  and  undesignedly  declared  it  to 
the  world,  whose  books,  yet  extant,  would  instruct  a  man 
in  what  most  became  a  philosopher  to  know  ,  the  ac- 
complishment of  whose  predictions  did  sufficiently  at- 
test their  faithfulness  and  integrity,  and  the  mighty  mira- 
cles which  they  wrought,  set  the  truth  of  what  they  said 
beyond  all  exception  ;  that  they  magnified  God  the  great 
creator  of  the  world,  and  published  his  son  Christ  to  the 
world :  concluding  his  discourse  with  this  advice.  But 
as  for  thyself,  above  all  things  pray  that  the  gates  of  light 
may  be  set  open  to  thee  ;  for  these  are  not  things  dis- 
cerned and  understood  by  all,  unless  God  and  Christ  grant 
to  a  man  the  knowledge  of  them.  Which  discourse  be- 
ing ended,  he  immediately  departed  from  him. 

4.  The  wise  discourse  of  this  venerable  man  made  a 
deep  impression  upon  the  martyr's  mind"",  kindled  in  his 
soul  a  divine  flame,  and  begot  in  him  a  sincere  love  of 

m  Ibid.  pug.  225. 


THE   LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  iisi 

the  prophets,  and  those  excellent  men  that  were  friends 
to  Christ :  and  now  he  beg^in  seriously  to  inquire  into, 
and  examine  the  Christian  religion,  which  he  confesses  he 
iound  /x-.vxv  ^piKoa-'xpia^  i7<fsiXM  tt  i.  lifj.i^fot^'.M,  the  only  certain  and  pro- 
fitable philosophy,  and  which  he  could  not  but  commend 
as  containing  a  certain  majesty  and  dread  in  it,  and  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  terrify  and  persuade  those  who  were 
out  of  the  right  way,  and  to  beget  the  sweetest  serenity 
and  peace  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  conversant  in 
it.  Nor  was  it  the  least  inducement  to  turn  the  scale 
with  him,  when  he  beheld  the  innocency  of  the  Christians' 
lives,  and  the  constancy  of  their  death,  with  what  fearless 
and  undaunted  resolutions  they  courted  torments,  and  en- 
countered death  in  its  blackest  shape.  This  very  accoimt 
he  gives  of  it  to  the  Roman  emperor.  *'  For  my  own  part" 
says  "he  '*  being  yet  detained  under  the  Platonic  institu- 
tions, when  I  heard  the  Christians  traduced  and  re- 
proached, and  yet  saw  them  fearlesly  rushing  upon  death, 
and  venturing  upon  all  those  things  that  are  accounted 
most  dreadful  and  amazing  to  human  nature,  I  con- 
cluded with  myself,  it  was  impossible  that  those  men 
should  wallow  in  vice,  and  be  carried  away  with  the 
}ove  of  lust  and  pleasure.  For  what  man  that  is  a 
slave  to  pleasure  and  intemperance,  that  looks  upon  the 
eating  human  flesh  as  a  delicacy,  can  cheerfully  bid 
death  welcome,  which  he  knows  must  put  a  period  to 
all  his  pleasures  and  delights ;  and  would  not  rather  by  all 
means  endeavour  to  prolong  his  life  as  much  as  is  pos- 
sible, and  to  delude  his  adversaries,  and  conceal  him- 
self from  the  notice  of  the  magistrate,  rather  than  vo- 
luntarily betray  and  offer  himself  to  a  present  execu- 
tion ?  And  certainly  the  martyr's  reasonings  were  unan- 
swerable ;  seeing  there  could  not  be  a  more  effectual 
proof  of  their  innocency,  than  their  laying  down  their 
lives  to  attest  it.  Zeno  was  wont  to  say,  he  had  ra- 
ther see  one  Indian  burnt  alive,  than  hear  a  hundred 
arguments  about  enduring  labour  and  suffering.  Whence 
Clemens   Alexandrinus"  infers  the  great  a-dvantages  of 

n  Ap.:l.  I.  p.  b<:i.        o  StromaU  1.  2.  p.  4l4. 

X  n 


282  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

Christianity,  wherein  there  were  daily  fountains  of  mar- 
tyrs springing  up,  who  before  their  eyes  were  roasted, 
tormented,  and  beheaded,  every  day,  whom  regard  to 
the  law  of  their  master  had  taught  and  obliged,  ai  ivK^cu  <r/ 
aliudLrctv  ivSiUvivo^Srau,  to  demonstratc  the  truth  and  excellency 
of  their  religion,  by  seahng  it  with  their  blood. 

5.  We  cannot  exactly  fix  the  date  of  his  conversion, 
yet  may  we,  I  think,  make  a  very  near  conjecture. 
I'Eusebius  tells  us,  that  at  the  time  when  Hadrian  conse- 
crated Antinous,  Justin  did  yet  adhere  to  the  studies  and 
religion  of  the  Greeks.  Now  for  this  we  are  to  know 
that  Hadrian  coming  into  Egypt  lost  there  his  beloved 
catamite  Antinous,  whose  death  he  so  resented,  that  he 
advanced  him  into  the  reputation  of  a  deity  ;  whence  in 
an  ancient  inscription  at  'i  Rome,  he  is  styled  cxNepoNov 

TON  EN  AirruTn  gehn,  the  assessor  of  the  gods  in  Egypt 

He  built  a  city  to  him  in  the  place  where  he  died  called 
Antinoe,  erected  a  temple,  and  appointed  priests  and  pro- 
phets to  attend  it,  instituted  annual  solemnities,  and  every 
live  years  sacred  games,  called  AvVmew,  held  not  in  Egypt 
only,  but  in  other  parts ;  whence  an  "■  iiiscription  not  long 
after  those  times,  set  up  by  the  senate  of  Smyrna,  men- 
tions Lerenius  Septimius  Heliodorus  Antinoea,  who 
overcame  in  the  sports  at  Symrna.  But  to  return....* 
'Tis  very  evident  that  Hadrian  had  not  been  in  Egypt, 
till  about  the  time  of  Servianus  or  Scverianus's  being 
consul  (as  appears  from  that  emperor's  letters  '  to  him) 

whose  consulship  fell  in  with  Ann.  Chr.  CXXXII 

Traj.  Xyi.  So  that  this  of  Antinous  must  be  done 
either,  that,  or  at  most,  the  foregoing  year ;  and  accord- 
ingly about  this  time  (as  Eusebius  intimates)  Justin  de- 

sorted  the  Greeks,  and  came  over  to  the  Christians 

Whence  in  his  first  apology  presented  not  many  years 
after  to  Antoninus  Pius,  Adrian's  successor,  he  speaks 
*  of  Antinous  iS  vSy  yiymxfAyi^,  who  vcry  lately  lived  and  was 
consecrated,  and  of  the  Jewish  war,  headed  by  Barcha- 
chab,  as  but  lately  past,  which  we  know  was  concurrent 

p  H.  Eccl.  1.  4.  c.  8.  p.  122.     q  Ap   Caes-tii.  not.  in  ^£1.  Spart.  vlt.  Adr.  p.  66 
r  iV.arm.  Oxon.  CXLIII.  p.  ''277 .      f  Ext.  ap.  Vopisc.  in  vit.  Saturn,  p.  959 
Apol.  II.  (revera  I.)  p.  72 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.       •  uS 

with  the  death  and  apotheosis  of  Antinous.  For  that 
Justin's  0  yvy  ytym»/uiv<^  ill  Uoth  passagcs,  cannot  be  precisely 
conlinccl  to  the  time  of  presenting  that  apology,  is  evident 
to  ail,  and  therefore  (as  the  phrase  is  sometimes  used) 
must  be  extended  to  what  was  lately  done. 

6.  The  wiser  and  more  considerate  part  of  the  Gen- 
tiles were  not  a  little  troubled  at  the  loss  of  so  useful  and 
eminent  a  person,  and  wondered  what  should  cause  so 
sudden  a  change.  For  whose  satisfaction  and  conver- 
sion, as  well  as  his  own  vindication,  he  thought  good 
particularly  to  write  a  discourse  to  them,  in  the  very  first 
words  whereof  he  thus  bespeaks  them.  "  "  Think  not, 
*'  O  ye  Greeks,  that  I  have  rashly,  and  without  any  judg- 
"  ment  or  deliberation  departed  from  the  rites  of  your 
*'  religion.  For  I  could  find  nothing  in  it  really  sacred, 
"  and  worthy  of  the  divine  acceptance.  The  matters 
"  among  you,  as  your  poets  have  ordered  them,  are 
"  monuments  of  nothing  but  madness  and  intemper- 
"  ance  :  and  a  man  can  no  sooner  apply  himself  even  to 
'^  the  most  leamed  among  you  for  instruction,  but  he 
*'  shall  be  entangled  in  a  thousand  difficulties,  and  be- 
*'  come  the  most  confused  man  in  the  world,"  And 
then  proceeds  with  a  great  deal  of  wit  and  eloquence  to 
expose  the  folly  and  absurdness  of  the  main  foundations 
of  the  Pagan  creed,  concluding  his  address  with  these 
exhortations;  "  ''Come  hither,  O  ye  Greeks,  and  par- 
"  take  of  a  most  incomparable  wisdom,  and  be  instruct- 
"  ed  in  a  divine  religion,  and  acquaint  yourselves  with 
'*  an  immortal  King.  Become  as  I  am,  for  I  sometimes 
''  was  as  you  are.  These  are  the  arguments  that  pre- 
"  vailed  with  me,  this  the  efficacy  and  divinity  of  the  doc- 
^'  trine,  which  like  a  skilful  charm  expels  all  corrupt  and 
"  poisonous  aftections  out  of  the  soul,  and  banishes  that 
"  lust  that  is  the  fountain  of  all  evil,  whence  enmities, 
"  strifes,  envy,  emulations,  anger,  and  such  like  mis- 
"  chievous  passions  do  proceed :  which  being  once 
*•'  driven  out,  the  soul  presently  enjoys  a  pleasant  calm- 
"  ness  and  tranquillity.     And  being  delivered  from  that 

u  Orat.  ad  Grsec.  p,  37.  v  Ibid.  p.  40. 


^84  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

*'  yoke  of  evils,  that  before  lay  upon  its  neck,  it  "aspire^ 
"and  mounts  up  to  its  Creator  ;  it  being  but  suitable 
*'  that  it  should  return  to  that  place,  from  whence  it  bor- 
*'  rowed  its  original." 

7.  But  though  he  laid  aside  his  former  profession,  hp 
still  retained  his  ancient  garb,  h  <^<xo3-o<f,«  <rx>'fji^T,  ^^irSi-jm  nv 
s-sTov  xoyov,  as  ""Eusebius,  and  after  him  "St.  Hierom  reports, 
preaching  and  defending  the  Christian  religion  under  his 
old  philosophic  habit,  which  was  the  palliu?n  or  cloak^  the 
usual  badge  of  the  Greek  philosophers  (different  ffom 
that  which  was  worn  by  the  ordinary  Greeks)  and  which 
those  Christians  still  kept  to,  who  before  their  conver- 
sion had  been  professed  philosophers.  So  ^  St.  Hierom 
tells  us  of  Aristides,  the  Athenian  philosopher,  contem- 
poraiy  with  Quadratus,  that  under  his  former  habit  he 
becanie  Christ's  disciple  ;  and  '  Origen  of  Heraclas,  af- 
terwards bishop  of  Alexandria,  that  giving  up  himself  to 
the  more  strict  study  of  philosophy,  he  put  on  <?u6cro<j,5v  <rxy/A* 
the  philosophic  habit,  which  he  constantly  wore  even  after 
he  became  presbyter  of  that  church.  This  custom  con- 
tinued long  in  the  Christian  church,  that  those  who  did 
*vg/C5;c;t5(s-=t»if=;v,  (as  ""Socratcs  speaks)  enter  upon  an  ascetic 
course  of  life,  and  a  more  severe  profession  of  religion, 
always  wore  the  philosopher's  cloak,  and  he  tells  us  of 
Silvanus  the  rhetorician,  that  when  he  became  christian, 
and  professed  this  ascetic  life,  he  was  the  first  that  laid 
aside  the  cloak,  and  contrary  to  custom  put  on  the  com- 
mon garb.  Indeed  it  was  so  common,  that  h  >gi/«of  i^i&sT^c 
became  proverbial  among  the  Heathens,  when  any 
Christian  'k^-mt-,,  passed  by,  there  goes  a  Greek  impostor, 
because  of  their  being  clad  after  the  same  manner,  and 
professing  a  severer  life  than  ordinary,  like  the  philoso- 
phers  among  the  Grecians,  many  of  whom,  notwithstand- 
mg,  were  mere  cheats  and  hypocrites'' ;  and "  St.  Hierom 

Av  Lib.  4.  c.  11.  p.  12.5.      x  De  script,  in  Justin,      v  De  script,  mi  Aristid. 
z  Ap.  Eiiseh.  I.  6.  c.  19.  p.  221.  a  H.  Ecd.  1.  7.  c.  37. 


t«Ta- 


^    .  •       ''5' ""'''  '''"'*  ^"f^iihiyfj^i^vi.     Dion.  Chi'ySi 

Orat.  LXXl.    ^zrm  tS  yj'.o:  p,  627.  '  c  Epist-  atl  Marcel,  p.  115.  Tom.  i. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTir-J.  285 

notes  of  his  time,  that  if  such  n  Christian  were  not  so 
iine  and  spruce  in  his  garb  as  others,  piesently  the  com- 
inon  saying  was  clapt  upon  him,  he  is  an  impostor  and  a 
Greek.  This  habit  it  seems  was  generally  black,  and 
sordid  enough.  Whence  the  monks  who  succeeded  in 
this  strict  and  regular  course  of  life,  are  severely  noted 
by  the  Gentile  writers  of  those  times  under  this  charac- 
ter. Libanius  calls  them  ^s>.ai«/>(Mt;'7ic,  0/ack  coat  monks, 
and  says  of  them,  that  the  greatest  demonstration  of  their 
virtue  was  Ti  .j-iiv  iv  »>«]io/c  wesvTw,  to  walk  about  in  mourning 
garments.*^  Much  at  the  same  rate  '^  Eunapius  describes 
the  monks  of  Egypt,  that  they  were  clad  in  black,  and 
were  ambitious  <r;,.ao<r/V  ao-xx/movjiv,  to  go  abroad  in  the  most 
slovenly  and  sordid  garb.  But  it  is  time  to  return  to 
our  St.  Justin,  who  (as  '^Photius  and  '^Epiphanius  note) 
showed  himself  in  his  words  and  actions,  as  well  as  in  his 
habit  to  be  a  true  philosopher. 

8.  He  came  to  Rome,  (upon  what  occasion  is  uncer- 
tain) probably  about  the  beginning  of  Antoninus  Pius's 
reign,  where  he  fixed  his  habitation,  dwelling,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  acts  of  his  martyrdom,  about  the  Timo- 
thine  baths,  which  were  upon  the  \^iminal  mount.  Here 
he  strenuously  employed  himself  to  defend  and  promote 
the  cause  of  Christianity,  and  particularly  to  confute  and 
beat  down  the  heresies  that  then  mainly  infested  and  dis- 
turbed the  jchurch,  writing  a  book  ^  against  all  sorts  of 
licresies ;  but  more  especially  opposed  himself  to  Mar- 
cion,  ^vho  was  the  son  of  a  bishop,  born  in  Pontus,  and 
for  his  deflowering  a  virgin  had  been  cast  out  of  the 
church,  whereupon  he  fled  to  Rome,  where  he  broached 
many  damnable  errors,"  and  among  the  rest,  that  there 
were  two  Gods,  one  the  Creator  of  the  world,  whom  he 
made  to  be  the  God  of  .the  Old  Testament,  and  the  au- 
thor of  evil ;  the  other  a  more  Sovereign  and  Sujireme 
Being,  Creator  of  more  excellent  things,  the  Father  of 
Christ,  whom  he  sent  into  the  world  to  dissolve  the  law 
and  the  prophets,  and  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  other 

(1  Orat.  (Ic  Tempi,  p.  10.  Ibid.  p.  28.  e  In  vit.  vEdes.  p.  65. 

f  *//.:3-5^aiy  i,  tok  MyoK  "^  Tt^  ^'ttt  ij  tJ  rTyifji-ri.   Cod.  ]'.'5.  col.  G04. 

g  Hcrcs.  46.  p.  171,  h  Apol.  II,  p..  70 


286  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

Deity,  whom  lie  styled  the  God  of  the  Jews.  Others., 
and  among  them  especially  '  Epiphanius,  and  a  more  an- 
cient author  ^  of  the  dialogues  against  the  Marcionites 
under  the  name  of  Origen  (for  that  it  was  Origen  himself, 
I  much  question)  make  him  to  have  established  three 
differing  principles  or  beings  ;  an  «?/*"  *>''S^".  or  ^'-ooof  prin- 
ciple, the  father  of  Christ,  and  this  was  the  god  of  the 
Christians  ;  an  a^;^^  /jr^/Kg^w^,  or  creating  principle^  that 
made  the  visible  frame  of  things,  which  presided  over 
the  Jews,  and  an  d^  ^-.r^^i,  or  evil  principle,  which  was 
the  devil,  and  ruled  over  the  Gentiles.  With  him  Jus- 
tin encountered  both  by  word  and  writing,  particularly 
publishing  a  book  which  he  had  composed  against  him 
and  his  pernicious  principles. 

8.  About  the  year  of  our  Lord  140,  the  Christians 
seem  to  have  been  more  severely  dealt  with  ;  for  though 
Antoninus  the  emperor  was  a  mild  and  excellent  prince, 
and  who  put  out  no  edicts,  that  we  know  of,  to  the  pre- 
judice of  Christianity,  yet  the  Christians  being  generally 
ti'aduced  and  defamed  as  a  wicked  and  barbarous  gene- 
ration, had  a  hard  hand  born  upon  them  in  all  places, 
and  were  persecuted  by  virtue  of  the  particular  edicts  of 
former  emperors,  and  the  general  standing  laws  of  the 
Roman  empire.  To  vindicate  them  from  the  aspersions 
cast  upon  them,  and  to  mitigate  the  severities  used  to- 
wards them,  Justin  about  this  time  published  his  first 
aprology,  (for  though  in  all  editions  it  be  set  in  the  second 
place,  it  was  unquestionably  the  first)  presenting  it  (as 
appears  from  the  inscription)  to  Antoninus  Pius'  the  em- 
peror, and  to  his  two  sons  Verus  and  Lucius,  to  the  se- 
nate, and  by  them  to  the  whole  people  of  Rome,  wherein 
with  e-reat  strensrih  and  evidence  of  reason  he  defends 
the  Christians  from  the  common  objections  of  their  ene- 
mies, proves  the  divinity  of  the  Christian  faith  and  shows 
how  unjust  and  unreasonable  it  was  to  proceed  against 
them  without  due  conviction  and  form  of  law,  acquaints 
them  with  the  innocent  rites  and  usages  of  the  Christian 
assemblies,  and  lastly  puts  the  emperor  in  mind  of  the 

i  Hjei-es.  xlii  .p.  135.         k  Dial,  contr.  Marcion.  p.  3,  4.  Basil,  edit.  1671.  4 
I  Vid.Eu3eb,l.4.  c.  18.  p.  139. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  28T 

course  which  Adrian,  his  predecessor,  had  taken  in  this 
matter  ;  who  had  commanded  that  Christians  should  not 
be  needlessly  and  unjustly  vexed,  but  that  their  cause 
should  be  traversed  and  determined  in  open  judicatures  ; 
annexing  to  his  apology  a  copy  of  the  rescript  which 
Adrian  had  sent  to  Minucius  Fundanus  to  that  purpose. 
10.  His  address  wanted  not  it  seems  its  desired  success™. 
For  the  emperor,  in  his  own  nature  of  a  merciful  and  ge- 
nerous disposition,  being  moved  partly  by  this  apology, 
partly  by  the  notices  he  had  recei\'ed  from  other  parts  of 
the  enipire,  gave  orders  that  Christians  henceforward 
should  be  treated  in  more  gentle  and  regular  ways,  as  ap- 
pears among  others  by  his  "letter  to  the  commonalty  of 
Asia,  yet  extant,  which  I  shall  here  insert. 

'*  Emperor  Caesar  Titus,  ^'Elius  Adrian,  Antoninus, 
Augustus,  Pius,  high  priest,  the  15th  time  tribune,  thrice 
consul,  father  of  the  country,  to  the  common  assembly  of 
Asia,  greeting.  I  am  very  well  assured,  that  the  gods 
themselves  will  take  care,  that  this  kind  of  men  shall  not 
escape,  it  being  much  more  their  concern,  than  it  can  be 
yours,  to  punish  those  that  refuse  to  worship  them  ; 
whom  you  do  but  the  stronglier  confirm  in  their  own 
sentiments  and  opinions,  while  you  vex  and  oppress 
them,  accuse  them  for  atheists,  and  charge  other  things 
upon  them,  which  you  are  not  able  to  make  good  :  nor 
can  a  more  acceptable  kindness  be  done  them,  than  that 
being  accused  they  may  seem  to  choose  to  die  rather  than 
live,  for  the  sake  of  that  God  whom  they  worship.  By 
which  means  they  get  the  better,  being  ready  to  lay  dowii 
their  lives,  rather  than  be  persuaded  to  comply  with  your 
command.  As  for  the  earthquakes  that  have  been,  or 
that  do  yet  happen,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  advertise  you, 
whose  minds  are  ready  to  despond  under  any  such  acci- 
dents, to  compare  your  case  with  theirs.  They  at  such 
a  time  are  much  more  secure  and  confident  in  their  God, 
whereas  you,  seeming  to  disown  God  all  the  while,  ne- 
glect both  the  rites  of  other  gods,  and  the  religion  of  that 

m  Oros.  Hist.  1.  7.  c.  14.  fol.  305.  n  Ap.  J.  Marl,  ad  Calr.  Apo).  u  p. 

100.  8cap.  Euseb.1.4  c.  15.  p.  126. 3t  Clifon,  Alex.  Ann.  2.  Oivpip.  CCXXZVII. 
Ind.  VII.p.  &)3. 


288  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

immortal  deity,  nay  banish  and  persecute  to  death  the 
Christians  that  worship  him.  Concerning  these  men  se- 
veral governors  of  provinces  have  heretofore  written  to 
my  father  of  sacred  memory  :  to  whom  he  returned  this 
answer,  That  they  sliould  be  no  way  molested,  unless  it 
appeared  that  they  attempted  something  against  the  state 
of  the  Roman  empire.  Yea,  and  I  myself  have  received 
many  notices  of  this  nature,  to  which  I  answer  according 
to  the  tenor  of  my  father's  constitution.  After  all  which 
if  any  shall  still  go  on  to  create  them  trouble,  merely  be- 
cause they  are  Christians,  let  him  that  is  indicted  be  dis- 
charged, although  it  appear  that  he  be  a  Christian,  and 
let  the  informer  himself  undergo  the  punishment. 

Published  at  Ephesus  in  the  place  of  the  com- 
mon assembly  of  Asia. 

11.  This  letter  was  sent  (as  appears  from  the  year  of 
his  consulship)  Ann.  Chr.  140,  Antonini  III.  if  it  be  ob- 
jected, that  this  seems  not  consistent  with  the  year  of  his 
being  tribune,  said  here  to  be  the  15th,  I  answer  that  the 
^i,fjL3.e^x"--^  i^a^ii,  or  tribunitian  power  did  not  always  com- 
mence with  the  beginning  of  their  reign,  but  was  some- 
times granted,  and  that  more  than  once,  to  persons  in  a 
private  capacity,  especially  those  who  were  candidates 
for  the  empire.  Thus  (as  appears  from  the  Fasti  Coitsu- 
lares")  M.  Agrippa  had  the  1  r'lbnnitia potcstas  seven,  as 
after  his  death  Tiberius  had  it  fifteen  times  during^  the 
life  of  x\ugustus.  So  that  Antoninus's  fifteenth  tribune- 
ship  might  well  enough  consist  with  the  third  year  of  his 
empire.  Though  I  confess  I  am  apt  to  suspect  an  error 
in  the  number,  and  the  rather  because  ''Sylburgius  tells 
us,  that  these  1 5  }  ears  were  not  in  the  edict,  as  it  is  in 
Justin  martyr,  but  were  supplied  out  of  Eusebius's  copy, 
which  I  have  some  reason  to  think  to  be  corrupted  in 
other  parts^  of  this  epistle.  I  am  not  ignorant  that  some 
learned  men  would  have  this  imperial  edict  to  be  the  de- 
cree of  Marcus  Aurelius,  son  of  Antoninus.  Indeed  in 
the  inscription  of  it,   as  it  is  extant  in  Eusebius,  it  is 

oVkles'isFast.  Consul.  aSi^on.  Edit.  ad.  Ann.  V.C.DCCXLI.ttDCCLXVI. 
p  An;K»t.  in  Justin.  M.  p.  10.  c  2.' 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  289 

Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus :  but  then  nothing  can  be 
more  evident,  than  that  that  part  of  it  is  corrupted,  as  is 
plain,  both  because  Eusebius  himself  a  few  lines  before 
expressly  ascribes  it  to  Antoninus  Pius,  and  because  in 
the  original  inscription  in  Justin's  own  apolog)'  (from 
whence  Kusebius  transcribed  his)  it  is  Titus  /Elius  An- 
toninus Pius.  And  besides  that  nothing  else  of  moment 
is  offered  to  make  good  the  conjecture,  the  whole  con- 
sent of  antiquity,  and  the  tenor  of  the  epistle  itself  clear- 
ly adjudge  it  to  the  elder  Antoninus ;  and '^IMelito  bi- 
shop of  Sardis,  who  presented  an  apology  to  his  son  and 
successor,  tells  him  of  the  letters  which  his  father  at  the 
time  when  he  was  his  partner  in  the  empire,  wrote  to  the 
cities  that  they  should  not  raise  any  new  troubles  against 
the  Christians. 

12.  Not  long  after  his  first  apology,  Justin  seems  to 
have  revisited  the  eastern  parts  :  for  besides  what  he  says 
in  the  acts  of  his  martyrdom,  that  he  was  twice  at  Rome, 
■^Eusebius  expressly  affirms,  that  he  was  at  Ephesus, 
where  he  had  his  discourse  with  Tryphon,  which  it  is 
'plain  was  after  the  presenting  his  first  apology  to  the  em- 
peror. And  it  is  no  w^ays  improbable  but  that  he  went 
to  Ephesus  in  company  vrith  those  who  carried  the  em- 
peror's edict  to  the  common-council  of  Asia,  then  assem- 
bled in  that  city,  where  he  fell  into  acquaintance  with 
Tryphon  the  Jew.  This  Tryphon  was  probably  that 
rabbi  Tarphon,  -ii2.';'n  pDn  as  they  commonly  call  him,  the 
wealthy  priest^  the  master  or  associate  of  R.  Aquiba,  of 
whom  mention  is  often  made  in  the  Jewish  writings.  A 
man  of  great  note  and  eminency,  who  had  fled  his  coun- 
try* in  the  late  war,  where  Barchochab  had  excited  and 
headed  the  Jews  to  a  rebellion  against  the  Romans,  since 
Arhich  time  he  had  lived  in  Greece,  and  especially  at  Co- 
rinth, and  had  mightily  improved  himself  by  converse 
with  the  philosophers  of  those  countries.  With  him 
Justin  enters  the  lists  in  a  two  diiy's  dispute,  the  account 
whereof  he  has  given  us  in  his  dialogue  with  that  subtle 

q  Ap.  Eitscb.  I.  4.  c.  26.  p.  US.  vid.  c.  13.  p.  \27.  r  Lib.  4.  c.  17.  p.  140. 

s  Vi.l  Di.-il  Jg'.  cum  Tryph.  p.  349.         t  Dialog-,  cum  Tryph.  p.  ?]? 

0    O 


290  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

man,  wherein  he  so  admirably  defends  and  makes  good 
the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  cuts  the  very  sinews 
of  the  Jewish  cause,  dissolves  all  their  pleas  and  pretences 
against  Christianity,  and  discovers  their  implacable  spitt 
and  malice,  who  not  barely  content  to  reject  Christianity, 
sent  peculiar  persons  "up  and  down  the  world  to  spread 
abroad,  that  Jesus  the  Galilaian  was  a  deceiver  and  sedu- 
cer, and  his  whole  religion  nothing  but  a  cheat  and  an 
imposture,  that  in  their  public  synagogues  they  solemnly 
anadiematized  all  that  turned  Christians,  hated  them,  as 
elsewhere"  he  tells  us,  widi  a  mortal  enmity,  oppressed 
and  murdered  them  whenever  they  got  thtm  in  their  pow- 
er ;  Barchochab,  their  late  general,  making  them  the  only 
objects  of  his  greatest  severity  and  revenge,  unless  they 
would  renounce  and  blaspheme  Christ.  The  issue  of  the 
conference  was,  that  the  Jew  acknowledged  himself  high- 
ly pleased  with  his  discourse,  professing  he  found  more 
in  it  than  he  thought  could  have  been  expected  from  it, 
wishing  he  might  enjoy  it  oftener,  as  what  would  greatly 
conduce  to  the  true  understanding  of  the  scripture,  and 
begging  his  friendship  in  what  part  of  the  world  soever 
he  was. 

13.  In  the  conclusion  of  this  discourse  with  Tryphon, 
he  tells  us,  he  waa  ready  to  set  sail,  and  depart  from 
Ephesus,  but  wh^-ther  in  order  to  his  return  to  Rome,  or 
some  other  place,  is  not  known.  That  he  returned  thi- 
ther at  last,  is  unquestionable,  the  thing  being  evident, 
though  the  time  uncertain,  whether  it  was  while  Antoni- 
nus was  yet  alive,  or  in  the  beginning  of  his  successor's 
reign,  I  will  not  venture  to  determine.  At  his  coming- 
he  had,  among  others,  frequent  contests  with  Crescens, 
the  philosopher,  a  man  of  some  note  at  that  time  in  Rome. 
He  was  a  '"cynic,  and  according  to  the  genius  of  that  sect, 
proud  and  conceited,  surly  and  ill-natured,  a  philosopher 
in  appearance,  but  a  notorious  slave  to  all  vice  and 
wickedness.  ''Tatian,  Justin's  scholar,  (who  saw  the 
man  at  Rome,  admired  and  despised  him  for  his  childish 

u  Ibid,  pafj.  335.  &.ap.  Eiiseh.  1,  4.  c.  18.  p.  140.     .      v  Pag'.  oJ.l  Apolo.tr.  II. 
pair.  72.  w  Vid.  liicron.  dc  Script,  in  Justin.  ."i  Orat,  coiilr.  Cri£c. 

p.  160. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.    JUSTIN.  291 

and  trifling,  his  wanton  and  effeminate  manners)  gives  him 
this  character,  tliat  he  was  the  traduccr  of  all  their  gods, 
the  epitome  of  superstition,  the  accuser  of  generous  and 
heroic  actions,  the  subtle  contriver  of  murders,  the 
prompter  of  adultery,  a  pursuer  of  wealtli  even  to  rage 
and  madness,  a  tutor  of  the  A'ilest  sort  of  lust,  and  the 
great  engine  and  instigator  of  men's  being  condemned 
to  execution  :  he  tells  us  -of  him,  that  when  at  Rome,  he 
was  above  all  others  miserably  enslaved  to  sodomy  and 
covetousness ;  and  though  he  pretended  to  despise 
death,  yet  did  he  himself  abhor  it,  and  to  which,  as  the 
greatest  evil,  he  sought  to  betray  Justin  and  Tatian,  for 
their  free  reproving  the  vicious  and  degenerate  lives  of 
those  philosophical  impostors.  This  was  his  adversary, 
i>tKiioet>&'  ^i'iM<ro<p@',  as  hc  calls  him^,  a  lover  of  popular  ap- 
plause, not  of  true  wisdom  and  philosophy,  and  who  by 
all  the  base  arts  of  insinuation  endeavoured  to  traduce 
the  Christians,  and  to  represent  their  religion  under  the 
most  infamous  character.  But  in  all  his  disputes  the 
martyr  found  him  wretchedly  ignorant  of  the  affairs  of 
Christians,  and  strongly  biassed  by  malice  and  envy, 
which  he  offered  to  make  good  (if  it  might  be  admitted) 
in  a  public  disputation  with  him  before  the  emperor  and 
the  senate  ;  assuring  them,  that  either  he  had  never  con- 
sidered the  Christian  doctrines,  and  then  he  was  worse 
than  the  meanest  ideots,  who  are  not  wont  to  bear  wit- 
ness and  pronounce  sentence  in  matters  whereof  they 
have  no  knowledge  ;  or  if  he  had  taken  notice  of  them, 
it  was  plain  that  either  he  did  not  understand  them,  or  if 
he  did,  out  of  a  base  compliance  with  his  auditors,  dis- 
sembled his  knowledge  and  approbation,  for  fear  of  being 
accounted  a  Christian,  and  lest  freely  speaking  his  mind, 
he  should  fall  under  the  sentence  and  the  fate  of  Socrates; 
so  far  was  he  from  the  excellent  principle  of  that  wise 
man,  that  no  man  was  to  be  regarded  before  the  truth. 
Which  free  and  impartial  censure  did  but  more  exaspe- 
rate the  man,  the  sooner  to  hasten  and  promote  his  ruin. 

y  Orat.  contr.  Gr?ec.  p.  15"         z  Apol.  I.  (vcrins  II.)  p.  46. 


292  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

14.  In  the  mean  time  Justin  presented  his  second  apo- 
logy to  ivi.  Antoninus  (his  colleague,  L.  \  erus,  being 
then,  probably,  absent  from  the  city)  and  the  senate ; 
for  that  it  was  not  addressed  to  the  senate  alone,  is  evi- 
dent from  several  passages  in  the  apology  itself.  There 
are,  that  will  have  this  as  well  as  the  former  to  have  been 
presented  to  Antoninus  Pius,  but  certainly  without  any 
just  ground  of  evidence,  besides  that  Eusebius  and  the 
ancients  expressly  ascribe  it  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  his  son 
and  bucce:3^or.  And  were  the  inscription  and  beginning 
of  it,  which  are  now  wanting,  extant,  they  would  quickly 
determine  and  resolve  the  doubt.  The  occasion  of  it 
was  this.  *A  woman  at  Rome  had,  together  with  her 
husband,  lived  in  all  manner  of  wantonness  and  debauch- 
ery, but  being  converted  to  Christianity,  she  sought  by 
all  arguments  and  persuasions  to  reclaim  him  from,  his 
loose  and  vicious  course.  But  the  man  was  obstinate, 
and  deaf  to  all  reason  and  importunity  ;  however  by  the 
advice  of  her  friends,  she  still  continued  with  him, 
hoping  in  time  she  might  reduce  him  ;  till  finding  him 
to  grow  intolerable,  she  procured  a  bill  of  divorce  from 
him,  The  man  was  so  far  from  being  cured,  that  he  was 
more  enraged  by  his  wife's  departure,  and  accused  her 
to  the  emperor  for  being  a  Christian  ;  she  also  put  in  her 
petition,  to  obtain  leave  to  ansv.er  for  herself,  \^^here- 
upon  he  deserted  the  prosecution  of  his  wife,  and  fell  up- 
on one  Ptolemeus,  by  whom  she  had  been  converted  to 
the  Christian  faith,  whom  he  procured  to  be  cast  into 
prison,  and  there  a  long  time  tortured  merely  upon  his 
confessing  himself  a  Christian.  At  last  being  brought 
before  Urbicius,  prefect  to  the  city,  he  was  condemned 
to  death.  Whereat  Lucius,  a  Christian  that  stood  by, 
could  not  forbear  to  tell  the  judge,  it  was  very  hard  that 
an  innocent  and  virtuous  man,  charged  with  no  crime, 
should  be  adjudged  to  die  merely  for  bearing  the  name  of 
a  Christian,  a  thing  no  way  creditable  to  the  government 
of  such  emperors  as  they  had,  and  of  the  august  senate 
of  Rome,     Which  he  had  no  sooner  said,  but  he   was 

«  Apolog.  I.  p..  41. 


THE    LIFE    OF   ST.  JUSTIN.  293 

together  with  a  third  person  sentenced  to  the  same  fate. 
The  severity  of  tliese  proceedings  awakened  Justin's 
solicitude  and  care  for  the  rest  of  his  brethren,  who  im- 
mediately drew  up  an  apology  for  them,  wherein  he  lays 
down  a  true  and  naked  relation  of  the  case,  complains  of 
the  injustice  and  cruelty  of  such  procedures,  to  punish 
men  merely  for  the  name  of  Christians,  without  ever  ac- 
cusing them  of  any  material  crimes,  answers  the  objec- 
tions usually  urged  against  them,  and  desires  no  more 
favour,  than  that  what  determination  soever  they  should 
make  of  it,  his  apology  might  be  put  before  it,  that  so  the 
whole  world  might  judge  of  them,  when  they  had  been 
once  truly  acquainted  with  their  case. 

15.  The  martyr's  activit}'  and  zeal  in  tlie  cause  of 
Christianity  did  but  set  the  keener  edge  upon  Crescens's 
malice  and  rage  against  him.  The  philosopher  could 
not  confute  him  by  force  of  argument,  and  therefore 
resolved  to  attack  him  by  clancular  and  ignoble  arts, 
and  could  think  of  no  surer  way  to  oppress  him,  than 
by  engaging  the  secular  powers  against  him.  Marcus 
Antoninus,  the  emperor,  was  a  great  philosopher,  but 
withal  zealous  of  Pagan  rites  to  the  highest  degree  of 
superstition  ;  he  had  from  his  youth  been  educated 
in  the  ''Salian  college,  all  the  offices  whereof  he  had 
gone  through  in  his  own  person,  affecting  an  imitation 
of  Numa  Pompilius,  the  first  master  of  religious  cere- 
monies among  the  Romans,  from  whom  he  pretended 
to  derive  his  pedigree  and  original :  nay,  so  very  strict 
in  his  way  of  religion  (says  'Dion)  that  even  upon  the 
Dies  Nefasti,  the  unlucky  and  inauspicious  days,  when 
all  public  sacrifices  were  prohibited,  he  would  then  pri- 
vately offer  sacrifices  at  home.  What  apprehensions 
lie  had  of  the  Christians  is  evident  from  hence,  that  he 
ascribes ''their  ready  and  resolute  undergoing  death,  not 
to  a  judicious  and  deliberate  consideration,  but  to  a 
4;m)  -ari^i'T-j^i;,  a  7?ie?-e  stubborjiess  and  obstinacy  ;  which  he, 
being  so  eminent  and  professed  a  Stoic,  had  of  ail  men 

b  J.  Capitol  in  vit.  M.  Anton,  c.  4.  p.  155.         cExcevpt  Dion.  p.  721. 
d  Tiv  in  feAj7".l.  11.  ii.  3  p.  106. 


294  IHE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

in  the  world  the  least  reason  to  charge  them  m  ith.  With 
him  it  was  no  hard  matter  for  Crescens  to  insinuate 
himself,  and  to  procure  his  particular  disfavour  towards 
Justin,  a  man  so  able,  and  so  active  to  promote  the 
interest  of  the  Christian  religion  Indeed  *'Justin  him- 
self had  publicly  told  the  emperor  what  he  expected 
should  be  his  own  fate,  that  he  looked  that  Crescens,  or 
some  of  their  titular  philosophers,  should  lay  snares  to 
undermine,  torment,  or  crucify  him.  Nor  was  he  at 
all  mistaken,  the  envious  man  procuring  him  to  be  cast 
in  prison  where  if  the  '^Greeks  say  true,  he  was  exercis- 
ed with  many  preparatory  tortures  in  order  to  his  mar- 
tyrdom. I  confess  Eusebius  gives  us  no  particular  ac- 
count of  his  death,  but  the  acts  of  his  martyrdom  arc 
still  ^extant,  and  (as  there  is  reason  to  believe)  gC' 
nuine  and  uncorrupt,  the  shortness  of  them  being  not 
the  least  argument  that  they  are  the  sincere  transcripts  of 
the  primitive  records,  and  that  they  ha\  e  for  the  main 
escaped  the  interpolations  of  later  ages,  which  most 
others  have  been  obnoxious  to.  I  know  it  is  doubted 
by  ''one,  whether  these  acts  contain  the  martyrdom  of 
ours,  or  another  Justin  :  but  whoever  considers  the  par- 
ticulars of  them,  most  agreeable  to  our  Justin,  and  espe- 
cially their  fixing  his  death  under  the  prefecture  of  Rus- 
ticus,  which  Ei)iphanius  expressly  affirms  of  our  St. 
Justin,  will  see  little  reason  to  question,  whether  they 
belong  to  him.  In  them  then  we  have  this  following 
account. 

16.  Justin  and  six  of  his  companions  having  been  ap- 
prehended, were  brought  before  Rusticus,  prefect  of  the 
citv.  This  Rusticus  was  'Q.  Junius  Rusticus,  a  man  fa- 
mous both  for  court  and  camp,  a  wise  statesman  and  great 
philosopher,  peculiarly  addicted  to  the  sect  of  the  Stoics. 
He  was  tutor  to  the  present  emperor  M.  Aurelms,  and 
what  remarkable  rules  and  instructions  he  had  gi^en 
him,  Antoninus  himself  sets  down  at  large"^.  Above  all 
his  masters  he  had  a  particular  reverence  and  regard  to 

e  Apolog.  I    p.  46.  f  Men.  Grxc.  Tm  *'•  iS  "Ikv.  g  Apnd    Sur.   an 

XII  J'ln-  P-  ■''82  Ji  Baron,  ad.  Aim  165.  n.  2.  St  seq.         h  Sur.  !oc.  cit.  at. 
i  J.  Cupit.  ubl   su^;r.  c.  9.  p.  154.         k   Tav  ek  luvl.  1. 1.  f.  7.  p.  1. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN  295 

him,  communicated  to  him  all  his  public    and  private 
counsels,  showed  him  respect  before  all  the  great  officers 
of  the  empire,  and  after  his  death  required  of  the  senate 
that  he  might  be  honoured  *vvith  a  public  statue.     He 
had  been  consul  in  the  second  ytar  of  Hadrian,  and  again 
in  the  second  of  the   present  emperor's,   i.nd  was  now 
prefect  of  Rome  :   before  whom  these  good  men  being 
brought,   he  persuaded  Justin    to  obey   the  gods,  and 
comply  with  the  emperor's  edicts.    The  martyr  told  him, 
that  no   man  could  be  justly  found  fault  with,    or  con- 
demned,   that  obeyed  the   commands  of  our    Saviour 
Jesus    Christ.       Then  the   governor    inquired  in  what 
kind  of  learning  and  discipline    he    had  been  brought 
up  :  he  told  him,  that  he  had  endeavoured  to  understand 
all  kinds  of  discipline,  and  tried  all  methods  of  learning, 
but  had  finally  taken  up  his  rest  in  the  Christian  disci- 
pline, how  little  soever  it  was  esteemed   by  those  who 
were  led  by   error  and  false   opinions.     Wretch   that 
thou  art  (said  the  governor)  art  thou  then  taken  with  that 
discipline  ?   I  am,   replied    the   martyr,   for   with  right 
doctrine  do  I  follow  the  Christians,      And   when  asked 
what  that  doctrine  uas  ;  he  answered,  the  right  doctrine 
which  we   Christians  piously  profess,  is  this,  AVe  be- 
lieve the  one   only  God  to  be  the   creator  of  all  things 
visible  and  invisible,  and  confess  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  the  Son  of  God,  foretold  by  the   prophets  of  old, 
and  who  shall  hereafter  come  to  be  the  judge  of  mankind, 
a  saviour,  preacher,  and  master  to  all  those,  who  are  duly 
instructed  by  him  :  that  as  for  himself,  he  thought  him- 
self too  mean  to  be  able  to  say  any  thing  becoming  his 
infinite  deity  ;  that  this  was  the  business  of  the  prophets, 
who  had  many  ages   before  foretold  the  coming  of  this 
Son  of  God  into  the  world. 

17.  The  prefect  ne.xt  inquired  where  the  Christians 
were  wont  to  assemble,  and  being  told,  that  the  God  of 
the  Christians  was  not  confined  to  a  particular  place,  he 
asked  in  what  place  Justin  was  wont  to  instruct  his  dis- 
ciples, who  gave  him  an  account  of  the  place  where  he 
dwelt,  and  told  him  that  there  he  preached  the  Christian 
doctrine  to  all  that  resorted  to  him.     Then  having  se- 


296  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

verally  examined  his  companions,  he  again  addressed 
himself  to  Justin  in  this  manner.  Hear  thou  that  art 
noted  for  thy  eloquence,  and  thinkest  thou  art  in  the 
truth;  if  I  cause  thee  to  be  scourged  from  head  to  foot, 
thinkest  thou  thou  shall  go  to  heaven?  He  answered, 
that  although  he  should  suffer  what  the  other  had  threat- 
ened, yet  he  hoped  he  should  enjoy  the  portion  of  all 
true  Christians,  well  knowing  that  the  divine  grace  and 
favour  was  laid  up  for  all  such,  and  should  be  as  long  as 
the  world  endured.  And  when  again  asked,  whether 
he  thought  he  should  go  to  heaven,  and  receive  a  re- 
ward ;  he  replied,  that  he  did  not  think  it  only,  but  knew, 
and  was  so  certain  of  it,  that  there  was  no  cause  to  doubt 
it.  The  governor  seeing  it  vv-as  to  no  purpose  to  argue, 
came  closer  to  the  matter  in  hand,  and  bid  them  go  to- 
gether, and  unanimously  sacrifice  to  the  gods.  No 
man  (replied  the  martyr)  that  is  in  his  right  mind,  will 
desert  true  religion  to  fall  into  error  and  impiety.  And 
when  threatened  that  unless  they  complied,  they  should 
be  tormented  without  mercy  ;  There  is  nothing  (said 
Justin)  which  we  more  earnestly  desire,  than  to  endure 
torments  for  the  sake  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  be 
saved.  For  this  is  that  which  will  promote  our  happi- 
ness, and  procure  us  confidence  before  that  dreadful 
tribunal  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  before  which  by  the 
divine  appointment,  the  whole  world  must  appear.  To 
which  the  rest  assented,  adding,  despatch  quickly  what 
thou  hast  a  mind  to,  for  we  are  Christians,  and  cannot 
sacrifice  to  idols.  Whereupon  the  governor  pronounc- 
ed this  sentence  ;  Theij  xvho  refuse  to  do  sacrifice  to  the 
gods^  and  obey  the  imperial  edicts  let  them  be  first  scourg-" 
ed,  and  then  beheaded  accordii^g  to  the  laws.  The  holy 
martyrs  rejoiced  and  blessed  God  lor  the  sentence  pass- 
ed upon  them,  and  being  led  back  to  prison,  were  ac- 
cordingly whipped,  and  afterwards  beheaded.  The 
Greeks*  in  their  rituals,  though  very  briefly,  give   the 

Men.  Grxcor.  T^  a-  t«  ']»)•. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  297 

same  account,  only  they  differ  in  the  manner  of  the 
martyr's  death,  which  they  tell  us  was  by  a  draught 
of  poison,  while  the  rest  of  his  companions  lost  their 
heads.  Though  there  are  that  by  that  fatal  potion  un- 
derstand no  more  than  the  poisonous  malice  and  en- 
vy of  Crescensthe  philosopher,  by  which  Justin's  death 
was  procured.  And  indeed,  if  literally  taken,  the  ac- 
count of  the  Greeks  in  that  place  will  not  be  very  consist- 
ent with  itself.  Their  dead  bodies  the  Christians  took 
up  and  decently  interred.  This  was  done,  as  Baronius 
conjectures,  Ann.  Chr.  CLXV.  with  whom  seems  to 
concur  the  '"Alexandrine  Chronicle,  which  says,  that 
Justin  having  presented  his  second  apology  to  the  em- 
perors, was  not  long  after  crowned  with  martyrdom. 
This  is  all  the  certainty  that  can  be  recovered  concern- 
ing the  time  of  his  death,  the  date  of  it  not  being  con- 
signed by  any  other  ancient  writer.  It  is  a  vast  mis- 
take (or  rather  error  of  transcribers)  of  "Epiphanius, 
who  makes  him  suffer  under  Adrian,  when  yet  he  could 
not  be  ignorant  that  he  dedicated  his  first  apology  to 
Antoninus  Pius,  his  successor,  in  the  close  whereof  he 
makes  mention  of  Adrian,  his  illustrious  parent  and 
predecessor,  and  annexes  the  letter  which  he  had  written 
to  Minucius  Fundanus  in  favour  of  the  Christians  ;  and 
no  less  his  mistake  (if  it  was  not  an  error  in  the  number) 
concerning  his  age,  making  him  but  thirty  years  old  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  a  thing  no  ways  consistent  with 
the  course  of  his  life  :  and  for  what  he  adds  of  ^i-  xiS^iria-ii 
«x«iV,  that  he  died  in  a  firm  and  consistent  age,  it  may  be 
very  well  applied  to  many  years  after  that  period  of  his 
life. 

18.  Thus  have  we  traced  the  martyr  through  the  se- 
veral stages  of  his  life,  and  brought  him  to  his  last  fatal 
period.  And  now  let  us  view  him  a  little  nearer.  He 
was  a  man  of  a  pious  mind,  and  a  very  virtuous  life  ; 
tenderly  sensible  of  the  hojiour  of  God,  and  the  great 
interests  of  religion.     He  was  not   elated,  nor  valued 

v^  Ad  ann.  2  01\  mp.  2.36.  M.  Aurel.  &  L.  Ver.  Imp.  6.  Indict.  3.  p.  606. 
n  Hsres.  XLVf.  p.  in. 


298  THE   LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

himself  upon  the  account  of  his  great  abilities,  but  upon 
every  occasion  entirely  resolved  the  glory  of  all  into  the 
divine  grace  and  goodness.  He  had  a  true  love  to  all 
men,  and  a  mighty  concern  for  the  good  of  souls,  whose 
happiness  he  continually  prayed  for  and  promoted,  yea, 
that  of  their  fiercest  enemies.  From  none  did  he  and 
his  religion  receive  more  bitter  affronts  and  oppositions 
than  from  the  Jews,  yet  he  tells  °Tryphon  that  they  hear- 
tily prayed  for  them  and  all  other  persecutors,  that  they 
might  repent  and,  ceasing  to  blaspheme  Christ,  might  be- 
lieve in  him,  and  be  saved  from  eternal  vengeance  at  his 
glorious  appearing:  ^diat  though  they  were  wont  so- 
lemnly to  curse  them  in  their  synagogues,  and  to  join, 
with  any  that  would  persecuie  them  to  death,  yet  they 
r*iturned  no  other  answer  than  that,  you  are  our  brethren, 
we  beseech  you  own  and  embrace  the  truth  of  God.  And 
in  his^apology  to  the  emperor  and  the  senate,  he  thus 
concludes,  1  have  no  more  to  say,  but  that  we  shall  en- 
deavour what  in  us  lies,  and  heartily  pray,  that  all  men 
in  the  world  may  be  blessed  with  the  knowledge  and 
entertainment  of  the  trutli.  In  th'.-  pursuit  of  this  no- 
ble and  generous  design  he  feared  no  dangers,  but  deli- 
vered himself  with  the  greatest  freedom  and  impartiality  ; 
he  acquaints  the  ""emperors,  how  much  it  was  their  duty 
to  honour  and  esteem  the  truth,  that  he  came  not  to 
smooth  and  flatter  them,  but  to  desire  them  to  pass  sen- 
tence according  to  the  exactest  rules  of  justice  ;  'that  it 
was  their  phice  and  infinitely  reasonable  when  they  had 
heard  the  cause,  to  discharge  the  duty  of  righteous 
judges,  which  if  ijiey  did  not,  they  would  at  length  be 
found  inexcusable  before  God,  'nay  that  if  they  went 
on  to  punish  and  persecute  such  innocent  persons,  he 
tells  them  beforehand,  it  was  impossible  they  should 
escape  the  future  judgment  of  G(k1,  while  they  persisted 
in  this  evil  and  unrighteous  course.  In  this  case  he  re- 
garded not  the  persons  of  men,  nor  was  scared  with  the 
dangers  that  attended  it,  and  therefore  in  his  conference 

o  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  p.  254.         p  Ibiil.png'.    323  q  Apolog.  I.  p  52. 

r  Apnl.  II.  p.  53.        s  Ibid.  p.  54r.        t  iLid.  p.  99. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  299 

Avitli  the  Jew,  tells  "'  him,  that  he  regarded  nothing  but  to 
speak  the  truth,  not  caring  whom  in  this  matter  he  dis- 
obliged, yea,  though  they  should  presently  tear  him  all  in 
pieces ;  neither  fearing  nor  favouring  his  own  country- 
men the  Samaritans,  whom  he  had  accused  in  his  apo- 
logy to  the  emperor,  for  being  so  much  bewitched  and 
seduced  with  the  impostures  of  Simon  Magus,  whom 
they  cried  up  as  a  supreme  deity,  above  all  principality 
and  power. 

1 9.  For  his  natural  endowments,  he  was  a  man  of 
acute  parts,  a  smart  and  pleasant  wit,  a  judgment  able  to 
weigh  the  differences  of  things,  and  to  adapt  and  accom- 
modate  them  to  the  most  useful  purposes  ;  all  which 
were  mightily  improved  and  accomplished  by  the  advan- 
tages of  foreign  studies,  being  both  in  the  Christian  and 

*llithniC  philosophy,   sicax^cv   -ii-h-)  uviOr  ■,  -n-o.vfAxlifiu  ti  x,  i^o^im 'W-t^i^pr-./ut' 

f®-  TTKirc^,  says  "  Photius,  arrived  at  the  very  height,  flow- 
ing with  abundance  of  history,  and  all  sorts  of  learning. 
In  one  thing,  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  come  short,  and 
wherein  the  first  fathers  were  generally  defective,  skill  in 
the  Hebrew,  and  other  eastern  languages,  as  appears  (to 
omit  others)  by  one  instance,  his  derivation  of  the  word 
Satanas;   Sata  (as  he  tells  ''us)  in  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Syriac  signifying  an  apostate,  and  Nas  the  same  with  the 
Hebrew  Sata,  out  of  the  composition  of  both  which  arises 
this  one  word  Satanas.     A  trifling  conceit,  and  the  less 
to  be  pardoned  in  one  that  was  born  and  lived  among  the 
Samaritans  and  the  Jews;   every  one  that  has  but  con- 
versed with  those  languages  at  a  distance,  knowing  it  to 
spring  from  'p'>^  to  be  an  adversary,  which  being  formed 
according  to  the  mode  of  the  Greeks,  (as  "Origen  long 
since  observed  in  this  very  instance)  who  were  wont  to 
add  *c  to  the   termination  of  words  borrowed  from  a  fo- 
reign language,  becomes  Satanas,  an  adversary.     And 
therefore  a  late  'author  (who  has  weeded  the  writings  of 
the  ancients,  and  whose  quotations  savour  of  infinitely 
greater  ostentation,  than  either  judgment  or  fidelity)  suf- 

n  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  p. 349.  v  Cod.  CXXV.  col.  304. 

w  Dialog,  cum  Tryph.  p.  331.  x  Contr.  Gels.  1.  6.  p.  306. 

y  Sund. Tract,  dc  Vet.  Script.  Eccl.  Hist.  Eccles.  Tom.  1.  Tixfix.  p.  14. 


300  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

ficiently  betrays  his  ignorance  in  those  very  fathers,  with 
which  he  pretends  so  much  acquaintance,  when  to  prove 
the  Quest.  &?  Jiesp.  ad  Orthodoxos^  not  to  be  the  genuine 
work  of  our  Justin,  he  urges  the  odd  and  ridiculous  in- 
terpretation of  the  word  osanna^  there  rendered  '^  by  ^6>a- 
xo<r),n  uTTiex.iifj.mu  siipcT  excellcut  magnijicence  :  of  the  true 
signification  whereof  (says  he)  Justin  himself  being  a 
Samaritan  could  not  be  ignorant.  When  as  his  unques- 
tionable tracts  afford  such  evident  footsteps  of  his  lament- 
able unskilfulnes  in  that  language.  But  the  man  must 
be  excused,  seeing  in  this  (as  in  many  other  things)  he 
traded  purely  upon  trust,  securely  stealing  the  whole 
passage,  word  for  word,  out  of  another  author  "^ :  so  little 
skill  had  he  to  distinguish  between  true  and  false,  and  to 
know  when  to  follow  his  guides,  and  where  to  leave 
them.  As  for  Justin  himself  his  ignorance  herein  is  the 
less  to  be  wondered  at,  if  we  consider  that  his  religion, 
as  a  Gentile  born,  his  early  and  almost  sole  converse  with 
the  Greeks,  his  constant  study  of  the  writings  of  the 
Gentile  philosophers,  might  well  make  him  a  stranger  to 
that  language,  which  had  not  much  in  it  to  tempt  a  mere 
philosopher  to  learn  it.  In  all  other  parts  of  learning, 
how  great  his  abilities  were,  may  be  seen  in  his  writings 
yet  extant  (to  say  nothing  of  them  that  are  lost)  TrtTranSiUfxi- 

V«t    JleiVoieK   if   tvi^}  ra,   ^ila.   ia-wsni'Hitilct;   i-arCfxvii/ucilct.,  Trds-n^   ii<^e\UU(    i/uTT^ta,  B.S 

^  Eusebius  says  of  them,  the  monuments  of  his  sin- 
gular parts,  and  of  a  mind  studiously  conversant  about 
divine  things,  richly  fraught  with  excellent  and  useful 
knowledge.  They  are  all  designed  either  in  defence  of 
the  Christian  religion  both  against  Jews  and  Gentiles,  or 
in  beating  down  that  common  religion,  and  those  pro- 
phane  and  ridiculous  rites  of  worship  which  then  go- 
verned the  world,  or  in  prescribing  rules  for  the  ordinary 
conduct  of  the  Christian  life,  all  which  he  has  managed 
with  an  admirable  acuteness  and  dexterity.  Some  books 
indeed  have  obtruded  themselves  under  his  name,  as  the 
JExpositio  Fideiy   Qu(£Stio7ies  ^  jResponsa  ad  OrthodoxqSj 

7.  Vid.  Q!i«st.  L.  p.  421.  a  Vid.  Rivet.  Crit  Sacr.  1.  2.  c.  5.  p.  J9S. 

b  H.  Eccl.  1.  4.  c.  18.  p.  139. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  soi 

Quccstiones  Gra^camca  ad  C/iristianos,  Qinestiones  V.  ad 
Graces,  £ffc.  all  which  are  undoubtedly  of  a  later  age, 
composed  after  Christianity  was  fully  settled  in  the  world, 
and  the  Arian  controversies  had  begun  to  disturb  the 
Christian  church.  Or  if  any  of  them  were  originally 
his,  they  have  been  so  miserably  interpolated  and  defa- 
ced by  after  ages,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  discern 
true  from  false. 

20.  As  for  the  epistle  to  Diognetus,  though  excepted 
against  by  some,  yet  is  it  fairly  able  to  maintain  its  title, 
without  any  just  cause  alleged  against  it.  Nor  is  it  im- 
probable but  tliat  this  might  be  that  very  Diognetus  who 
was  tutor  to  the  emperor  M.  Aurelius,  who  (as  himself 
confesses ')  persuaded  him  to  the  study  of  philosophy, 
and  gave  him  wise  counsels  and  directions  to  that  pur- 
pose, and  being  a  person  of  note  and  eminency,  is  accord- 
ingly saluted  by  the  martyr  ^^  ith  a  K^di,^t  ^liyy^-n,  most  excel' 
lent  Diognetus.  His  temper  and  course  of  life  had  made 
him  infinitely  curious  (as  is  evident  from  the  first  part  of 
that  epistle)  to  know  particularly  what  was  the  religion, 
what  the  manners  and  rites  of  Christians,  what  it  w^as  that 
inspired  them  with  so  brave  and  generous  a  courage,  as 
to  contemn  the  world,  and  to  despise  death  ;  upon  what 
grounds  they  rejected  the  religion,  and  disowned  the 
deities  of  the  Gentiles,  and  yet  separated  themselves 
from  the  Jewish  discipline  and  way  of  worship ;  what 
was  that  admirable  love  and  friendship  by  which  they 
were  so  fast  knit  together,  and  why  this  novel  institution 
came  so  late  into  the  world.  To  all  which  inquiries 
(suitable  enough  to  a  man  of  a  philosophic  genius)  Jus- 
tin (to  whom  probably  he  had  addressed  himself  as  the 
most  noted  champion  of  the  Christian  cause)  returns  a 
very  particular  and  rational  satisfaction  in  this  epistle, 
though  what  effect  it  had  upon  the  philosopher  is  un- 
known. That  this  epistle  is  not  mentioned  by  Eusebius, 
is  no  just  exception,  seeing  he  confesses  "^  there  were 
many  other  books  of  Justin's  besides  those  which  he 
there  reckons  up  :  that  it  is  a  little  more  than   ordinary 

z  M.  Aurej.  -eui  «?  \xvl.\.  1.  $.  6.  p.  1.  d  H.  Eccl.  1. 4.  c.  18.  p.  140. 


302  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

polite  and  philosophical,  is  yet  less ;  for  who  can  won- 
der if  so  great  a  scholar  as  Justin,  writing  to  a  person  so 
eminent  for  learning  and  philosophy,  endeavoured  to 
give  it  all  the  advantages  of  a  florid  and  eloquent  dis- 
course. It  must  be  confessed  that  his  ordinary  style  does 
not  reach  this  ;  for  which  let  us  take  Photius's  *  cen- 
sure, a  man  able  to  pass  a  judgment  in  this  case  :  he 
studied  not  (says  he)  to  set  off  the  native  beauty  of  philo- 
sophy with  the  paint  and  varnish  of  rhetorical  art.  For 
which  cause  his  discourses,  though  otherwise  very  weighty 
and  powerful^  and  observing  a  composure  agreeable  enough 
to  art  and  science,  have  not  yet  those  sweet  and  luscious  in- 
sinuations, those  attractives  and  alluremejits  that  are  woTit 
to  prevail  upon  vulgar  auditors^  and  to  draw  them  aft^r  . 
them, 

21.  That  which  may  seem  most  to  impair  the  credit 
of  this  ancient  and  venerable  man,  is  that  he  is  commonly 
said  to  be  guilty  of  some  unorthodox  sentiments  and 
opinions,  disagreeing  with  the  received  doctrines  of  the 
church.  True  it  is,  that  he  has  some  notions  not  war- 
ranted by  general  entertainment  or  the  sense  of  the 
church,  especially  in  later  ages,  but  yet  scarce  any  but 
what  were  held  by  most  of  the  fathers  in  those  early 
times,  and  which  for  the  main  are  speculative  and  have 
no  ill  influence  upon  a  good  life ;  the  most  considerable 
whereof  we  shall  here  remark.  First  he  is  charged  with 
too  much  kindness  and  indulgence  to  the  more  eminent 
sort  of  Heathens,  and  particularly  towards  Socrates, 
Keraclitus,  and  suchlike  ^ :  such  indeed  he  seems  to  al- 
low to  have  been  in  some  sense  Christians,  and  of  So- 
crates particularly  ^  affirms  that  Christ  was  i^o  /*«§*;  in  part 

known  to  him,  and  the  like  elsewhere  more  than  once 

The  ground  of  all  which  was  this,  that  such  persons  did 
fxird  ?.iy^ 0M,  live  according  to  the  >.oy&  the  word,  or  reason, 
and  that  this  naturally  is  in  every  man,  and  manifest  to 
him,  if  he  but  govern  himself  according  to  it.     For  the 

e  Loc.  supr.  cit:it. 

f  Toy  XpiiOv  TsrpmTOTOicov  -to    0ii  itvtty  liiSi-^nfMV,  i,    'ar^oi/umu^ntjuty  xo'^ov  orru,  k 

iv'.fAia^ijm  oiMv  h' iL/Xiifi y.'iv  2*KgxT>tc  ^  'H^aitxe/?®',  *,  oj  6y.3tai  omtoIc  ApoL  li- 
pase 83.  S  Apol.  I.  p.  48. 


THE    LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  303. 

clearer  understanding  whereof  it  may  not  be  amiss  briefly 
to  inquire  in  what  sense  the  primitive  fatliers,  and  espe- 
cially our  Justin  use  this  word  w>'3^.  And  their  notion 
was  plainly  this,  that  Christ  was  the  eternal  >.iyQr  or  word 
of  the  Father,  the  sum  and  centre  of  all  reason  and  wis- 
dom, as  the  sun  is  the  fountain  of  light,  and  that  from 
him  there  was  a  f.-.y®-  or  reason  naturalh'  derived  into 
every  man,  as  a  beam  and  emanation  of  light  from  that 
sun  ;  to  which  purpose  they  usually  bring  that  of  St. 
John,  Jn  the  beginning  xvas  the  word,  and  the  word  was 
with  God,  a?id  the  word  was  God:  that  was  the  true 
light  that  Ughteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world*". 
God  (says  Justin)  '  first  and  before  the  production  of  any 
creatures  begot  of  himself  s-^y^/^n  t/v«  ^.^yum,  a  certain  rational 
power,  sometimes  styled  in  scripture  the  glory  of  God, 
the  Son,  Wisdom,  an  Angel,  God,  Lord,  and  Word  ;  by 
all  which  names  he  is  described  both  according  to  the 
economy  of  his  Father's  will,  and  according  to  his  volun- 
tary generation  of  him.  And  elsewhere'';  we  love  and 
worship  the  word  of  the  unbegotten  and  ineflhble  God, 
which  (Word)  for  our  sakes  became  man,  that  by  par- 
taking of  our  sufferings  he  might  v.-ork  out  our  cure 

Hence  Christ  is  called  '  ti  w»:(^>i>®-,  the  universal  Word, 
and  with  respect  to  him  reason  is  styled  ir7ri»^a7«cc  ^iy®-,  the 
seminal  Word  that  is  sown  in  our  natures,  iS  as-i^u^CixS  .^is 
}^y»s  TO  Qafyiff:,  and*" » ivjss-*  i/x-fi/Vn  to  xs^,*  <t®^;»,  thc  internal  semina- 
tion of  the  implanted  Word,  which  he  there  distinguishes 
from  the  dvr-,  t:  r^.g^a,  the  primary  and  original  seed  itself, 
from  which  according  to  the  measure  of  grace  given  l^y 
it,  all  participation  and  imitation  does  proceed.  This  is 
that  which  he  means  by  the  c-s'^^.^a':*  ixh6£('af,  the  seeds  of 
truth,  which  he  "  tells  us  seem  to  be  in  all  men  in  the 
world ;  they  are  a  derivation  from  Christ,  who  is  the 
root,  a  kind  of  participation  of  a  divine  nature  from  him. 
Clemens  of  Alexandria  thus  deduces  the  pedigree.  The 

h  O  Jf  Qoe^i^  'tM.\a.y.7ruy  tu;  X'.yixih  4  *:yiu'.;ixuc.  Ha.  d'.Ttir  o  vJf  r«  U/a  'sg«7* 
ilKiy.y,  Ts  jivTx  x.i(ry>s  i^t  qc?;'  >.iyce  ii  Tarn  f.'.yiK^,  >  :</_»»  rav  i»  Tj.~  a.iri't  te^.'u  x*f- 
ua,  &.C.  Orig-.  Com.  in  Joan.  p.  ::5.  vid  etiam.  p.  40." 

i  iJial.  cum  Trypli.  p.  234.  p.  285.  D.  k  Apol.  I.  p.  51. 

I  Ibid.  p.  46.  ml'oid  p.  51.  n  Apol.  1.  2.  p.  82. 


304.  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIX. 

image  of  God  (says  °  he)  is  his  word,  (for  the  divine 
word  is  the  genuine  offspring  of  the  mind,  the  archetypal 
light  of  light)  and  the  image  of  the  word  is  man.  The 
true  mind  that  is  in  man  (and  therefore  to  be  made  after 
the  image  and  Hkeness  of  God)  as  to  the  frame  of  the 
heart  is  conformed  to  the  divine  word,  and  by  that  means 
partakes  of  the  word  or  reason. 

22.  Origen,  Clemens's  scholar,  treads  exactly  in  his 
master's  steps.  He  tells  us^,  that  as  God  the  father  is 
AiTo^t&,  the  fountain  of  deity  to  the  Son,  so  God  the  Son, 
oxiytsr.  the  word,  or  the  supreme  and  eternal  reason,  is 
the  fountain  and  orignal  that  communicates  reason  to  all 
rational  beings,  who  as  such  are  .(«>«  i^wov©-,  the  image  of 
the  image,  that  is,  some  kind  of  shadow  of  the  word,  who 
is  the  brightness  of  his  father's  glory,  and  the  express 
knage  of  his  person.  And  he  further  adds,  that  xi^©-  with 
an  article  is  meant  of  Christ,  but  without  it  of  that  word 
or  reason  that  is  derived  from  him.  The  case  then  in 
short  is  this,  every  man  naturally  is  endued  with  princi- 
ples of  reason,  and  lively  notices  of  good  and  evil,  as  a 
light  kindled  from  him,  who  is  the  word  and  wisdom  of 
the  father,  and  may  so  far  be  said  to  partake  of  Christ, 
the  primitive  and  original  word,  and  that  more  or  less  ac- 
cording to  their  improvement  of  them  ;  so  that  whatever 
wise  and  excellent  things  either  philosophers  or  poets 
have  spoken,  says  Justin  the  martyr*^,  it  was  j-^to  i/x<pv}ov 
■rttvTi  y'tm  dy^pitTrm  aiiri^/Aa.  m  xiyts,  from  that  sccd  of  the  >Jy<§r,  word, 
or  reason  that  is  implanted  in  all  mankind:  thus  he  says 
that  Socrates"  exhorted  the  Greeks  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  unknoivn  God  by  the  inquisition  of  the  xvord.  T® 
conclude  this,  he  no  where  affirms,  that  Gentiles  might 
be  saved  without  the  entertainment  of  Christianity,  nor 

o  Admonit.  ad  Gent.  p.  62. 

p  'O  >ag,8v  5«ira>  |Mi>^  T<»v  XiyitiSiv  rsTov  t^v  Mynv  v/i^  "st^^i  t  f  v  ag^."?  '^'>"'  '^5''' 

0IOC  o-rttrip  .tr-gs?  i'lKOH,  i,  iinova.;  T  cijtov®'  (J'lx  yj  ndl'  i'moyA  f.iycyT:ti  liyiv  oj  oiy-^'fa- 
TTii,  i^  «J)coi/6c)  KTflic  oetuTOC  My®"  tiT^O!  -T  6v  iKctg-o)  Myoy  dfA^'-'Tig^rt  yj.^  TTnyif  t^e» 
X^i^^t  '  TTiTitp  ^i^rtfl©',  0  J'e  iitoi,  Koya.  Tim.  1.  Comment,  ui  jimii.  p.  4/.  Edit. 
Huet.  Tom.  2.  op  T^orriy  yn^  a  i7r\  TTdLTt  0«o?,  I  ©ecr,  ^K;y  aTAac  C-)s5f,  itac  «  t)i>.» 
i«  ill  e*as'a>  rvy  Koyum  xoyn,  o  Kiy^i^  n  iv  ix-dfui  y^oyx  n^  i-i  kv^'-cu;  ofniaii  tiJ  «rgx- 
Tfl)  ayofAa.o-^'iyl®'  i,  xe;^Sn7®',  o  X:y@'.  Ibid.  p.  40. 
q  Apolog.  I.  p.  46.  vid.  p.  48.  C.  r  Ibid.  p.  48. 


THE   LIFE    OF   ST.  JUSTIN.  305 

that  their  knowledge  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  that  end 
(no  man  more  strongly  proves  reason  and  natural  philo- 
sophy to  be  of  themselves  insufficient  to  salvation)  but 
that  so  far  as  they  improved  their  reason  and  internal 
word  to  the  great  and  excellent  purposes  of  religion,  so 
far  they  were  Christians,  and  akin  to  the  eternal  and  ori- 
ginal  word,  and  that  'whatever  was  rightly  dictated  or 
reformed  by  this  inward  word,  either  by  Socrates  among 
the  Greeks,  or  by  others  among  the  Barbarians,  was  in 
effect  done  by  Christ  himself,  the  xvord  made  Jiesh. 

23.  Another  opinion  with  which  he  was  charged  is 
Chiliasm,  or  the  reign  of  a  thousand  years.  This  in- 
deed he  expressly  asserts^  that  after  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  is  over,  Jerusalem  should  be  rebuilt,  beautified 
and  enlarged,  where  our  Saviour  with  all  the  holy  patri- 
archs and  prophets,  the  saints  and  martyrs  should  visibly 
reign  a  thousand  years.  He  confesses  indeed  that  there 
are  many  sincere  and  devout  Christians  that  would  not 
subscribe  to  this  opinion;  but  withal  affirms  that  there 
were  abundance  of  the  same  mind  with  him.  As  indeed 
there  were,  "Papias  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  ''Irenjeus  bishop 
of  Lyons,  "^Nepos,  Wpollinaris,  *Tertullian,  ''Victorinus, 
^Lactantius,  ''Severus  Gallus,  and  many  more.  The  first 
that  started  this  notion  among  the  orthodox  Christians  of 
those  early  times  seems  to  have  been  the  before  mention- 
ed Papias,  who  (as  ""Eusebius  tells  us)  pretended  it  to  be 
an  apostolical  tradition,  misunderstanding  the  apostles' 
discourses,  and  too  lightly  running  away  with  what  they 
meant  in  a  mystical  and  hidden  sense.  For  he  was,  though 
a  good  man,  yet  of  no  great  depth  of  understanding,  and 
so  easily  mistaken  ;  and  yet  as  he  observes,  his  mistake 
imposed  upon  several  ecclesiastical  persons,  the  venera- 

3  Oh  fM-^x-ji^i-t^nTt  S'ti  Ic^Kf^TKc  i.wri  xiya  riMy2,^»  TatuTot,  lin.ci  k,  «y  fifpdpu;  Jisri 
ai/™  TB  xsya  itMfa^eyT®' 5  a.i^f»i-^  yitofAiix,  /-.  'lucrS  X^<93  xA)tS';rT©'.  Jubt.  ApoJ. 
U.  P'  56.  t  Dblocr.  cum.  Tryp'li.  p.  306,  307.  vid.  p,  369. 

u  Apudlfen.  1.  5.  c.  33.  p.  498.  vid.  Euseb.l.S.  cult.  p.  112. 

V  Loc.  cit.  &.  ap.  r:ii!-eh.  ubj  stipr.  w  Ap.  Eiiseb.  1.  7.  c.  24.  p.  270. 

X  Ap.  Hieron.  Comm<T\t.  in  Eiecli.  c.  36.  Tom.  5.  p.  507. 

y  Adv.  Marcion.  1.  3.  c.  23.  p.  4U.  de  Uesnr.  Cam.  c.  25.  p.  340, 

z  Apud  Hieioii.,  loc.  snpr.   cit.  a  De  vit.  beat  L  7.  c.  ?4.  p.  722.  c.  26. 

p.  727.  &  seq.  b  Ap.   Hieron.  ubi  .snpr.  vid.  etiam  de  sciipt.  Ectlfes.  in 

I^apia,  c   L";b.3.  c.  3^.  p.  112. 

^1 


a06  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

ble  antiquity  of  the  man  recommending  the  error  to  them 
with  great  advantage.  Among  which  especially  were  our 
St.  Justin*  and  Ireneeus,  who  held  it  in  an  innocent  and 
harmless  sense.  It  is  true  "^Cerinthus  and  his  followers, 
mixing  it  with  Jewish  dreams  and  fables,  and  pretending 
divine  revelations  to  patronise  and  countenance  it,  im- 
proved it  to  brutish  and  sensual  purposes,  placing  it  in  a 
state  of  eating  and  drinking,  and  all  manner  of  bodily 
pleasures  and  delights.  And  what  use  heretics  of  later 
times  have  made  of  it,  and  how  much  they  have  improv- 
ed and  enlarged  it,  is  not  my  present  business  to  inquire. 
^  24.  Concerning  the  state  of  the  soul  after  this  life,  he 
affirms  *'that  the  souls  even  of  the  prophets  and  righteous 
men  fell  under  the  power  of  daemons,  though  how  far 
that  power  should  extend,  he  tells  us  not,  grounding  his 
assertion  upon  no  other  basis  than  the  single  instance  of 
Samuel's  being  summoned  up  by  the  enchantments  of 
the  Pythoness.  Nor  does  he  assert  it  to  be  necessarily 
so,  seeing  he  grants  that  by  our  hearty  endeavours  and 
prayers  to  God,  our  souls  at  the  hour  of  their  departure 
may  escape  the  seizure  of  those  evil  powers.  To  this 
we  may  add,  what  he  seems  'to  maintain,  that  the  souls 
of  good  men,  are  not  received  hito  heaven  till  the  resur- 
rection ;  that  when  they  depart  the  body,  they  remain 
h  ^pu^iw  Toi  xh'-f'  ^ifi  ^  better  state,  where  being  gathered 
within  itself,  the  soul  perpetually  enjoys  what  it  loved  ; 
but  that  the  souls  of  the  unrighteous  and  the  wicked  are 
thrustinto  a  worse  condition,  where  they  expect  the  judg- 
ment of  the  great  day :  and  he  reckons**  it  among  the 
errors  of  some  pretended  Christians,  who  denied  the  re- 
surrection, and  affirmed  that  their  souls  immediately  af- 
ter death  were  taken  into  heaven.  Nor  herein  did  he 
stand  alone,  but  had  the  almost  unanimous  suffrage  of 
primitive  writers  voting  with  him,  'Irenseus,  ''TertuUian, 
*Origen,  ™  Hilary,   "  Prudentius,  "  Ambrose,  ^  Auguslin, 

d  Cains  ap.  Euseb.  1.  ?..  c .  23.  p.  100.  Dionys.  Corinth,  ibid.  &  1.  7.  c.25.  p.  273. 

e  Dial,  cum  In  ph.  p  333.     flbid.  p.  22o.     g  lb.  p.  222.  C.     h  Ibid,  p.  307 

i  Adv.  Hxres.  I.  5.  c.  31.  p.  491.  h  Apol.  c.  47.  p.  37. 

1    n=?.  ipx-  '•  2-c-  V2  fi)l.  136.  1.  4  c.  2.  fol.   154.  confer.  Philoc.  c.  1.  p.  18. 
St  Homil  V.  Levit.  f<J.  71.  m  Enarrat.  in  Psal.  CXX.  p.  532. 

•  n  Cathenier.  Hymn.  X   p.  435.  o  Ambros.  de  Cain  &  Ab.  lib.  2.  p-  131- 

T.  4  de  bun.  JVIort,   c^  10.  p.  240. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN.  3Q7 

*»Anastasius  Sinaita,  and  indeed  who  not,  there  being  a 
e;encral  concurrence  in  this  matter,  that  the  souls  of  the 
righteous  were  not  upon  the  dissolution  presently  trans- 
lated into  Heaven,  that  is,  not  admitted  to  a  full  and  per- 
fect fruition  of  the  divine  presence,  but  determined  to 
certain  secret  and  unknown  repositories,  where  they  en- 
joyed a  state  of  imperfect  blessedness,  waiting  for  the 
accomplishment  of  it  at  the  general  resurrection,  which 
intermediate  state  they  will  have  described  under  the  no- 
tion of  Paradise  and  AbrahiwCs.  bosom,  and  which  some 
of  them  make  to  be  a  subterranean  region  within  the 
bowels  of  the  earth. 

25.  The  like  concurrence,  though  not  altogether  so 
uncontrollably  entertained  of  the  ancients  with  our  Jus- 
tin, we  may  observe  in  his  opinion  concerning  the  ''an- 
gels, that  God  having  committed  to  them  the  care  and 
superintendency  of  this  subkmary  world,  they  abused 
the  power  intrusted  with  them,  mixing  themselves  with 
women  in  wanton  and  sensual  embraces,  of  wliom  thev 
begat  a  race  and  posterity  of  dcemons.  An  assertion 
not  only  intimated  by  Thilo  and  ''Josephus,  but  express- 
ly owned  by  '  Papias,  "Athenagoras,  'Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus,  ''Tertullian,  ''Cyprian,  -Lactantius,  ''Sulpitius  Se- 
verus,  'St.  Ambrose,  and  many  more.  That  which 'first 
gave  birth  to  this  opinion  (easily  embraced  by  those  who 
held  angels  to  be  corporeal)  was  a  misunderstanding  that 
place,  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  oj"  men  that  they 
■were  fair,  arid  they  took  them  to  wife,  and  they  bare  chil- 
dren to  them,  the  same  became  mighty  men,  men  of  re- 
nown. And  it  more  particiiiarly  furthered  the  mijjtake, 
that  many  ancient  copies  of  the  Septuagint  (as  is  evident 
from  Philo  and  St.  Augustin,  and  the  king's  ancient 
Alexandrian  manuscript  at  this  day)  instead  of  the  sons 
read  the  angels  of  God,  which  the  fathers,  who  generally 

p  Enchirid.c.  109.  col.  190.  Tom  3.  in  Psalm.  36.  Cone.  1.  ccl.  281. T.  8. 

q  Qi\ast.  XCI.  q  Apol.  I.  p.  44.  r  De  Gigant.l.  1.  p.  221. 

s  Antiq.l,  1.  c.  4.  p.  8.     t  Apud  Andr.  Caesar.  Comment,  in  Apoc.  Serm.  12. 

u  Legat  pro  Christ,  p.  27.  v  Stromal.  1.  5.  p.  550. 

w  Do  Hub.  ml.  seu  de  CiiU.  focmin.  1.  1.  c.  2.  ()    150.  x  De  Di.icipl. 

8c  hab.  Vir^.  p.  166.  v  De  Orig.  error.  1.  2.  c.  14.  p  216.  z  Sacr. 

Hist.  lib.  1.  p.  8.  a  De  Moe  ti  Arc.  c.  4.  p.  141.  T.  4. 


S(^  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

understood  no  Hebrew,  were  not  able  to  correct.  And 
I  doubt  not  what  gave  further  patronage  to  this  error, 
was  the  authority  of  the  book  of  Enoch,  (highly  valued 
by  many  in  those  days)  wherein  this  story  was  related, 
as  appears  from  the  fragments  of  it  still  extant. 

26.  I  might  here  also  insist  upon,  what  some  find  so 
much  fault  with  in  our  martyr,  his  magnifying  the  power 
of  man's  will,  which  is  notoriously  known  to  have  been 
the  current  doctrine  of  the  fathers  through  all  the  first 
ages  till  the  rise  of  the  Pelagian  controversies,  though 
still  they  generally  own  >:»§»  i^^i^crov,  a  mighty  assistance  of 
divine  grace  to  raise  up  and  enable  the  soul  for  divine 
and  spiritual  things.  ^Justin  tells  his  adversary  that  it  is 
in  vain  for  a  man  to  think  rightly  to  understand  the  mind 
of  the  ancient  prophets,  unless  he  be  assisted  fxtr<i  fAtyJ-xy,^  xdgt- 
-i®-  ■/ -arajiGfS.by  a  mighty  grace  derived  from  God.  As  well 
may  the  dry  ground  (says  ''Irenasus)  produce  fruit  with- 
out rain  to  moisten  it,  as  we  who  at  first  are  like  dried 
sticks,  be  fruitful  unto  a  good  life,  without  voluntary 
showers  from  above,  that  is,  (as  he  adds)  the  laver  of  the 
spirit.  Clemens,  of  Alexandria**,  affirms  expressly,  that  as 
there  is  a  free  choice  in  us,  so  all  is  not  placed  in  our  own 
power,  but  that  by  grace  we  are  saved,  though  not  with- 
out .good  works  ;  and  that  to  the  doing  of  what  is  good 
/^a>.;s-ot  •/  3-si«  Aip^T^/""  x«'g(7®',we  especially  need  the  grace  of  God, 
a  right  institution,  an  honest  temper  of  mind,  and  that  the 
Father  draws  us  to  him  :  and  that  the  to  »y«^7v  ai^Ti^Ko-wv,  the 
powers  of  the  will  are  never  able  to  wing  the  soul  for  a 
due  flight  for  heaven,  without  a  mighty  portion  of  grace 
to  assist  it.  The  mysteries  of  Christianity  (as  *Origen 
discourses  against  Celsus)  cannot  be  duly  contemplated 
without  a  better  ajpatus  and  a  more  divine  power  ;  for 

b  Dialog,  cum  Tryph.  p.  3-  19.  c  Adv.  Hxres.  1.  3.  c.  19.  p.  280. 

d  To  \v>tf/^^  ad/Tt^itrtot  tU  yvSeo'H  d/^KOfAi\Gy  'rdya^i,  <rx.t^i  rt  x.  rrt^ii  vtsr)^  to.  It- 
^ififxiva.,  *  ^dc-iy  ol  yvfxvti^ttlf  ^A«v  «  Xs'giT^V  civiv  i? i ^cupiTU TrTi^irAi  rt  j,  siyi^a.'rai, 
^  eLicc  TaiturarifDHi/xivxi  dgiTM  H  4''X''>  '^*''  ''"*  /2§''^3y  aToriBiiy'.iv  ^^'i^n^'t^i^f-T^  QuPyivil. 
Clem.  Alexaiid.  Stromat.  1.  5.  p.  588.  Girt  j^  ayvj  /sr^-.Ai^a-ioic  -^ux^Jv  ctoy  ti  •  i 
/xiv  «/«  TO  TTctv  tTi  T>i  yia^fxn  rn  »  /utrt^^t  xiitcu  "  tivny  to  ci^roCnirijutvay.  Xd^ni  ji  (t-oj- 
^i/xt^i,  ix.  i\tu  y.iv  TOi  Ti»  jcaxiv  i/iycDv.^^ii ^i  i^  T>n  yyifj.»v  CyA  x«KT»(r3-a/,  Tiiv  ifit- 
TivoxTO*  «r{o<  T»v  S-n'giv  t5  %,a.Ki  •  <!P-gof  o  «r«p  /nd}J7a.  Tn'f  ^iia.;  :^gh^5^ty  Xa.gil®',  StS'a- 
iTK.stxisi;  TI  op3>if>  if  iyTTttSiittc  aLyyimi^  t«c  tii  fl'a.Tjic  (T§5j»uT3f  o^xJif.  Id,  ibid.  p.  547. 

e  Lib.  4.  p.  181.  vid.  etiain  ib.  p.  227. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.    JUSTIN.  309 

as  no  man  knows  the  things  of  a  man  save  the  spirit  of  a 
man  that  is  in  him,  so  no  man  knows  the  things  ofGod,  but 
the  spirit  of  God :  it  being  all  to  no  purpose  (as  he  else- 
where observes)  unless  God  by  his  grace  does  <i>o7<f«v  to  «>«- 
^;v/*iF,  enlighten  the  understanding.  I  add  no  more  but 
that  of  Tertullian*^,  who  asserts,  that  there  is  a  power  of 
divine  grace,  stronger  than  nature,  which  has  in  subjec- 
tion the  power  of  our  free  will.  So  evident  it  is,  that 
when  the  fathers  talk  highest  of  the  aiTjfhV/tr,  and  the  pow- 
ers of  nature,  they  never  intended  to  exclude  and  banish 
the  grace  of  God.  Some  other  disputable  or  disallowed 
opinions  may  be  probably  met  with  in  this  good  man's 
writings,  but  which  are  mostly  nice  and  philosophical. 
And  indeed  having  been  brought  up  under  so  many  seve- 
ral institutions  of  philosophy,  and  coming  (as  most  of  the 
first  fathers  did)  fresh  out  of  the  schools  of  Plato,  it  is  the 
less  to  be  wondered  at,  if  the  notions  which  he  had  there 
imbibed  stuck  to  him,  and  he  endeavoured,  as  much  as 
might  be,  to  reconcile  the  Platonic  principles  with  the 
dictates  of  Christianity. 

HIS   WRITINGS. 

Genuine.  Not  extant. 

Parsenesis  ad  Graecos. 

Elenchus,  seu  Oratio  ad  Grae-  Liber  de  Anima. 

COS.  Liber  Psaltes  dictus. 

Apologia  pro  Chrlstianis  pri-  Contra  omnes  Hsereses. 

ma.  Contra  Marcionem. 

Apologia  pro   Christianis   se-  Commentarius  in  Hexameron 

cunda.  (cujus   meminit  Anastasius 

Liber  de  Monarchia  Dei,  for-  Sinaita.) 

san  in  fine  mutilus.  De  Resurrectione  Camis  teste 

Dialogus    cum  Tryphone  Ju-  Damasceno. 

daso. 
Epistola  ad  Diognetum. 

f  Hzc  erit  vis  divinx  gratix,  potentior  utique  natura,  habens  in  nobis  sub- 
jacentem  sibi  liberam  arbitrii  potestateni,  qwod  dii-i^so-Kr  dicitur.  Tertul  de 
Amm.  c.  21.  p.  279. 


310  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  JUSTIN. 

Doubtful.  Quaestionum    CXLVI.    Res- 

Aristotelicorum      quorundam       ponsio  ad  Orthodoxos. 

Dogmatum  eversio.  Vld.  an  hie  liber  sit  idem  (sed 

Epistolaad  Zenam  &  Serenum.       interpolatus)  dc  quo  Photius 

hoc  titulo. 
Supposititious.  Dubitationum  adversus   Reli- 

gionem    summariae  solutio- 
Quaestiones    &    Respons.    ad       nes. 

Graecos.  Expositio   Fidei  de  S.  Trinir 

Qusestiones  Graecanicas,  de  in-       tate. 
corporeo,  &c.  &  ad   easdem 
Christiance  Responsiones, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENiEUS, 

BISHOP  OF  LYONS. 


His  country  iiiquired  into.  His  philosophical  studies.  His  institution  hy. 
Papias.  Papias  who.  His  education  under  St.  Polycarp.  His  com- 
ing into  France,  and  being  made  presbyter  of  Lyons.  Pothinus  who  ; 
how  and  by  whom  sent  into  France.  The  grievous  persecution  there 
under  M.  AureHus.  The  letters  of  the  martyrs  to  the  bishop  of  Rome 
Po])e  Eleutherius  guilty  of  Mohtanism.  Irenxus  sent  to  Rome.  His 
writing  against  Florinus  and  Blastus.  The  martyrdom  of  Pothinus 
Bishop  of  Lyons,  and  the  cruelty  exercised  towards  him.  Irenseus 
succeeds.  His  great  diligence  in  his  charge,  His  opposition  of  he- 
retics. The  Synods  said  to  have  been  held  under  him  to  that  pur- 
pose. The  Gnostic  heresies  spread  in  France.  Their  monstrous  vil- 
lanies.  His  confutation  of  them  by  word  and  writing.  Variety  of 
sects  and  divisions  objected  by  the  heathens  against  Christianity.  This 
largely  answered  by  Clemens  of  Alexandria.  Pope  Victor's  reviving 
the  controversy  about  Easter.  The  contests  between  him  and  the 
Asiatics.  Several  synods  to  determine  this  matter.  Ireaeus  his  mo- 
derate interposal.  His  Synodical  epistle  to  Victor.  The  persecution 
under  Severus.  Its  rage  about  Lyons.  Irenxus's  martyrdom,  and 
and  place  of  burial.  His  virtues.  His  industrious  and  elaborate  con- 
futation of  the  Gnostics.  His  style  and  phrase.  Photius  his  censure 
of  his  works.  His  error  concerning  Christ's  age.  Miraculous  gifts 
and  powers  common  hi  his  time.    His  writings. 

1.  ST.  IRENiEUS  may  justly  challenge  to  go  next  the 
martyr » tfyut  rav  <*cros-o\avy/vo^«»®-,  as  *  S.  Basil  styles  him,  one 
near  to  the  apostles,  which  ''  S.  Hierom  expresses  by 
being  a  man  of  the  apostolic  times.  His  originals  are 
so  obscure,  that  some  dispute  has  been  to  what  part  of 
the  world  he  belonged,  whether  east  or  west,  though 
that  he  was  a  Greek,  there  can  be  no  just  cause  to  doubt, 

a  Pe  Spirit  S.  c.  29.  p.  35S.  Tom.  2.        b  Epist.  sd  Theodor.  p.  196.  T.  1. 


312  ^       THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN.EUS. 

The  ancients  having  not  particularly  fixed  the  place  of 
his  nativity,  he  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  born 
at  Smyrna,  or  thereabouts.  In  his  youth  he  wanted 
not  an  ingenuous  education  in  the  studies  of  philosophy 
and  human  learning,  whereby  he  was  prepared  to  be 
afterwards  an  useful  instrument  in  the  church.  His 
iirst  institution  in  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  was  laid 
under  some  of  the  most  eminent  persons  that  then  were 
in  the  Christian  church.  St.  Hierom''  makes  him  scho- 
lar to  Papias  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  who  had  himself  con- 
versed with  the  apostles  and  their  followers.  This  Pa- 
pias (as  "^Irenaeus  and  others  inform  us)  was  one  of  St. 
John's  disciples  ;  by  whom  though  Eusebius  under- 
stands not  the  apostle,  but  one  sirnamed  the  Elder, 
which  he  seems  to  collect  from  a  passage  of  ^Papias 
himself;  yet  evident  it  is,  that  though  Papias  in  that 
place  affirms,  that  he  diligently  picked  up  what  memoirs 
he  could  meet  with  concerning  the  apostles  from  those 
that  had  attended  and  followed  them,  yet  he  no  where 
denies  that  he  himself  conversed  with  them.  He  was 
(as  ^Eusebius  characters  him)  a  man  very  learned  and 
eloquent,  and  knowing  in  the  scriptures ;  though  as  ^else- 
where he  adds,  C<j>'/««  Ci^ih^^  *"  '^'^  "»"•  of  a  very  weak  and 
undiscerning  judgment,  especially  in  the  more  abstruse 
and  mysterious  parts  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  which 
easily  betrayed  him,  and  others  that  followed  him,  into 
great  errors  and  mistakes.  He  wrote  five  books  entitled, 
Aoyixv  Kt/j/ax^y  t^iiyi^ri:,  fhc  explanation  ofouT  Lord's  discourses. 
and,  as  he  in  ''Photius  intimates,  and  the  'Alexandrine 
Chronicon  expressly  affirms,  died  a  martyr,  being  put  to 
death  at  Pergamus  in  the  persecution  under  M.  Aure- 
lius.  He  is  said  to  have  trained  up  many  scholars  in 
the  Christian  institution,  and  among  the  rest  our 
Irenasus.  Which  though  not  improbable,  yet  we  are 
sure  not  only  from  the  testimonies  of ''  Eusebius  and 
'Theodoret,  but  what  is  more,  from  his  ""own,  that  he 

c  Loc  cit  at.  d  Adv.  Hxres.  1.  5.  c.  33.  p.  498.  &  ap.  Euseb.  I.  3.  c.  39, 
p.  110.         e  Euseb.  loc.  cit.         f  Ibid.  c.  36  p.  106.         g  Ibid.  c.  39.  p.  113. 

h  Stepb.  Gob.  ap-  Phot.  Cod.  CCXXXIl  col.  901.  i  An.  III.  Olvmp.  235. 
Ind.  I.  M.  Aurel.  4.         k  H.  Eccl.  I.  5.  c.  5.  p.  170.         1  Adv.    Hxrcs.  dial.  1 

m  Epist.  ad  Flor.  apiid  Euseb.  ib.  c.  20.  p.  188.  S;  Hieron.  de  Scriin.  in  Iren 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENiEUS.  313 

was  trained  up  under  the  tutorage  and  instructions  of  St, 
Pol^vcarp  bishop  of  Smyrna,  and  St.  John's  disciple,  from 
whom  he  received  the  seeds  of  the  true  apostolic  doc- 
trine, and  for  whom  he  had  so  great  a  reverence  and  re- 
gard, that  he  took  a  most  exact  and  particular  notice  of 
whatever  was  memorable  in  him,  even  to  the  minutest 
circumstances  of  his  conversation,  the  memory  whereof 
he  preserved  fresh  and  lively  to  his  dying  day. 

2.  By  \\hose  hands  he  was  consecrated  to  the  minis- 
teries  of  religion,  as  also  when,  and  upon  what  occasion 
he  came  into  France  is  not  known.  Probable  it  is  that 
he  accompanied  St.  Polycarp  in  his  journey  to  Rome 
about  the  Paschal  controversy,  where  by  his  and  Ani- 
cetus's  persuasions  he  might  be  prevailed  with  to  go  for 
France,  (in  some  parts  whereof,  and  especially  about 
Marseilles,  great  numbers  of  Greeks  did  reside)  then 
beginning  to  be  over-run  with  those  pernicious  heresies 
which  at  that  time  invaded  and  disturbed  the  church, 
that  so  he  might  be  helpful  and  assisting  to  Pothinus  the 
aged  bishop  of  Lyons  in  quelling  and  subduing  of  them. 
This  Pothinus  (if  we  may  believe  Gregory,  bishop  of 
Tours",  who  resided  some  time  in  this  city  with  his  un- 
cle Nicetius  bishop  of  it)  came  out  of  the  East,  and  had 
been  despatched  hither  also  by  St.  Polycarp  to  govern 
and  superintend  this  church.  If  it  seem  strange  to  any 
how  St.  Polycarp's  care  came  to  extend  so  far,  as  to  send 
a  bishop  into  so  remote  and  distant  parts  of  the  world  ; 
it  seems  not  improbable  to  suppose,  that  Lyons  being  a 
city  famous  for  commerce  and  traffic,  some  of  its  mer- 
chants might  trade  to  Smyrna,  where  being  converted  by 
Polycarp,  they  might  desire  of  him  to  send  some  grave 
and  able  person  along  with  them  to  plant  and  propagate 
the  Christian  faith  in  their  own  country,  which  accord- 
ingly fell  to  Pothinus's  share.  But  then  that  this  must 
needs  be  done  by  the  authority,  and  ratified  by  the  de- 
cree of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  a  learned  man°  will  never  be 
able  to  convince  us,  though  he  offers  at  three  arguments 

n  Hist.  Franc,  lib.  1.  c.  29.  o  P.  de  Marc,  diso.ert  de  Primat.  n.  111. 

p.  2?r. 

R   r 


^14  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENiEUS. 

to  make  it  good :  weak  I  must  needs  say,  and  incon- 
eluding,  and  which  rather  show  that  he  designed  thereby 
to  reconcile  himself  to  the  court  of  Rome  (whose  favour 
at  the  time  of  his  writing  that  tract,  he  stood  in  need  of, 
in  order  to  his  admission  to  the  bishoprick  of  St.  Leiger 
de  Conserans,  to  which  he  was  nominated,  and  wherein 
he  was  delayed  by  that  court,  offended  with  his  late  book 
De  Concordia  Sacerdotii  &  Imperii)  than  argue  the  truth 
of  what  he  asserts,  so  unsuitable  are  they  to  the  learning 
and  judgment  of  that  great  man.  But  I  return  to  Ire- 
naeus.  He  came  to  Lyons,  the  metropolis  of  Gallia 
Celtica,  situate  upon  the  confluence  of  the  two  famous 
rivers  the  Roan  and  La  Saona,  or  the  ancient  Arar,  fa- 
mous among  other  things  for  its  temple  and  altars, 
erected  to  the  honour  of  Augustus  at  the  common  charge 
of  all  France,  where  they  held  an  annual  solemnity  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  upon  the  first  of  August :  and 
upon  P  this  day  it  was  that  most  of  the  martyrs  suffered 
in  the  following  persecution.  These  festival  solemni- 
ties Were  usually  celebrated  not  only  with  great  conten- 
tions for  learning  and  eloquence,  but  with  sports  and 
shows,  and  especially  with  the  bloody  conflicts  of  gla- 
diators, with  barbarous  usages,  and  throwing  malefactors 
to  wild  beasts  in  the  Ampitheatre ;  wherein  the  martyrs 
mentioned  by  Eusebius  bore  a  sad  and  miserable  part.... 
Irenceus  being  arrived  at  Lyons,  continued  several 
years  in  the  station  of  a  presbyter,  under  the  care  and 
government  of  Pothinus,  till  a  heavy  storm  arose  upon 
them.  For  in  the  reign  of  M.  Aurelius  Antoninus,  Ann. 
Chr.  CLXXVII.  began  a  violent  persecution  "^  against 
the  Christians,  which  broke  out  in  all  places,  but  more 
peculiarly  raged  in  France,  whereof  the  churches  of  Ly- 
ons and  Vein  in  a  ""  letter  to  them  of  Asia  and  Phrygia, 
give  them  an  account ;  where  they  tell  them,  'twas  im- 
possible for  them  exactly  to  describe  the  brutish  fierce- 
ness and  cruelty  of  their  enemies,  and  the  severity  of 
those  torments  which  the  martyrs  suffered,  banished  from 
their  houses,  and  forbid  so  much  as  to  show  their  heads. 

p  Euseb.  H.  Eccl   1.  5.  c.  1.  p.  162J  q  Eiiseb.  I.  5.  Prif.  p.  15X 

Apud  Euscb.  ibid.  p.  154,  155,  Sic. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENii^US.  315 

reproached,  beaten,  hurried  from  place  to  place,  plun- 
dered, stoned,  imprisoned,  and  there  treated  with  all  the 
expressions  of  an  ungovernable  rage  and  fury,  as  they 
particularly  relate  at  large.     The  occasion  '  of  writing 
this  account,  W' as  a  controversy  lately  raised  in  the  Asian 
churches  by  Montanus  and  his  followers,  concerning  the 
prophetic  spirit,  to  which  they  pretended  :  for  the  com- 
posing whereof  these   churches  thought  good  to  send 
their  judgment  and  opinion  in  the  case,  adjoining  the 
epistles  which  several  of  the  martyrs  (while  in  prison)  had 
written  to  those  churches   about  that  very  matter,  all 
which  they  annexed  to  their  commentary  about  the  mar- 
tyrs,  sufferings,  penned,  no  doubt,  by  the  hand  of  Irenseus. 
3.    Nor   did  the  martyrs  write    only  to  the    Asian 
churches,  but  to  Eleutherius  bishop  of  Rome  about  these 
controversies.     And  just  occasion  there  was  for   it,  if 
(which  is  most  probable)  this  very  Eleutherius  was  in- 
fected with  the  errors  of  Montanus  :  for  *  'J'ertuUiah  tells 
us,  that  the  bishop  of  Rome  did  then  owiiandembrace  the 
prophecies  of  Montanus  and  his  two  prophetesses,  and 
upon  that  account  had   given  letters   of  peace  to  the 
churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia,  though  by  the  persuasions 
of  one  Praxeas   he   was  afterwards  prevailed  with  to 
revoke  them.     Where  by  the  way  may  be   observed, 
that  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  was  then  from  home,  ox 
so  fast  asleep,  that  the  envious  man  could  sow  tares  in 
the  very  pontifical  chair  itself.     This  bishop  "  Baronius 
will  have  to  be  Anicetus,  but  in  all  likelihood  was  our 
Eleutherius,  who  in  his  after-condemnation  of  the  Mon- 
tanists  followed  the  example  of  his  "  predecessors,  (no 
doubt  Soter  and  Anicetus)  who  had  disowned  and  re- 
jected  Montanus's  prophecy  ;  nor  can  it  well  be  other- 
wise conceived  why  the   martyrs  should  so  particularly 
wTite  to  him  about  it.     And  whereas  "*  Baronius  would 
have  pope  Eleutherius  dead  long  before  TertuUian  be- 
came a  Montanist,  because,  in  his  book  against  heresies, 
he  styles  "^  him  the  blessed  Eleutherius,  as  if  it  were  tan- 

s  Euseb.  ibid.  c.  3.  p.  168  t  Adv.  Prax.  c.  1.  p.  501. 

u  Ad.  Ann.  173.  n.  IV.  v  Tcrtull.  ibid.  w  Ad.  Ann   201.  n.  IX, 

X  De  Praescript.  Hxres.  c.  30.  p.  212. 


516  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN.EUS. 

tamoiint  with  cujus  memoria  est  in  benedictione^  nothinp- 
was  more  common  than  to  give  that  title  to  eminent  per- 
sons while  ahve,  as  Alexander  of  Jerusalem  calls  ^'  Cle- 
mens Alexandrinus,  who  carried  the  letter,  the  blessed 
Clemens,  in  his  epistle  to  the  church  of  Antioch,  and 
the  clergy  of  the  church  of  Rome  styles  ^  St.  Cyprian 
(then  in  his  retirement)  the  blessed  pope  Cyprian,  in  their 
letter  to  them  of  Carthage.  To  this  Eleutherius,  then, 
these  martyrs  directed  their  epistle  :  for  the  martyrs  in 
those  times  had  a  mighty  honour  and  reverence  paid  to 
them,  and  their  sentence  in  any  weighty  case  was  always 
entertained  with  a  just  esteem  and  veneration.  These 
letters  they  sent  to  Rome  by  ^  Irenasus,  whom  they  per- 
suaded to  undertake  the  journey,  and  whom  they  parti- 
ticularly  recommended  to  Eleutherius  by  a  very  honour- 
able testimony,  desiring  him  to  receive  him  not  only  as 
their  brother  and  companion,  but  as  a  zealous  professor 
and  defender  of  that  religion  which  Christ  had  ratified 
with  his  blood.  I  know  ^  Mons.  Valois  will  not  allow 
that  Irenaeus  actually  went  this  journey,  that  the  martyrs 
indeed  had  desired  him,  and  he  had  promised  to  under- 
take it,  but  that  the  heat  of  the  persecution  coming  on, 
and  he  being  fixed  in  the  government  and  presidency 
over  that  church,  could  not  be  spared  personally  to  un- 
dergo it.  But  since  Eusebius  clearly  intimates  and  "  St. 
Hierom  expressly  affirms,  that  the  martyrs  sent  him  upon 
this  errand,  it  is  safest  to  grant  his  journey  thither, 
though  it  must  be  while  he  was  yet  presbyter,  for  so 
they  particularly  say  he  was  in  their  epistle  to  the  bishop 
of  Rome.  And  there  probably  it  was  that  he  took  more 
particular  notice  of  Florinus  and  Blastus  ^,  who  being 
presbyters  of  the  church  of  Rome,  were  about  this  time 
fallen  into  the  Valentinian  heresy,  the  first  of  whom  he 
had  formerly  known  ^  with  St.  Polycarp  in  Asia,  and 
noted  him  for  his  soft  and  delicate  manners,  and  to  whom 
after  his  return  home,  as  also  to  Blastus,  he  wrote  epis- 

y  Euseb,  1.  6.  c.  11.  p.  113.  ?.  Ad.  Cler.  Carthajj.  Epist.  II.  p.  8. 

a  Euseb.  ib.  c  4.       h  Annot.  in  Euseb.  p.  91,  &  92-      c  l3e  Script,  in  Iren- 
d  Euseb.  ibid.  c.  15.  p.  178.  e  Id.  ibid.  c.  20. 


THE   LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENAUS.  517 

ties  to  convince  them  of  those  novel  and  dangerous  sen- 
timents which  they  had  espoused. 

4.  And  now  the  persecution  at  Lyons  was  daily  car- 
ried on  with  a  fiercer  violence.  Vast  numbers  had  al- 
ready gone  to  heaven  through  infinite  and  inexpressible 
racks  and  torments,  and  to  crown  all,  ^Pothinus  their 
reverend  and  aged  bishop,  above  ninety  years  old,  was 
seized  in  order  to  iiis  being  sent  the  same  way.  Age 
and  sickness  had  rendered  him  so  infirm  and  weak,  that 
he  was  hardly  able  to  crawl  to  his  execution.  But  he 
had  a  vigorous  and  sprightly  soul  in  a  decayed  and  ru- 
inous body,  and  his  great  desire  to  give  the  highest  tes- 
timony to  his  religion,  and  that  Christ  might  triumph 
in  his  martyrdom,  added  new  life  and  spirit  to  him.  Be- 
ing apprehended  by  the  officers,  he  was  brought  before 
the  public  tribunal,  the  magistrates  of  the  city  follow- 
ing after,  and  the  common  people  giving  such  loud  and 
joyful  acclamations,  as  if  our  Lord  himself  had  been 
leading  to  execution.  The  governor  presently  asked 
him,  who  the  God  of  the  Christians  was  ?  Which  he 
knowing  to  be  a  captious  and  sarcastic  question,  re- 
turned no  other  answer  than,  IFert  thou  xuorthy,  thou 
shouldst  know.  Instruction  takes  hold  only  of  the  hum- 
ble and  obedient  ear.  Truth  is  usually  lost  by  being 
exposed  to  the  vitious  and  the  scornful  :  it  is  in  vain  to 
hold  a  candle  either  to  the  blind  that  cannot,  or  to  them 
that  shut  their  eyes,  and  will  not  see  :  there  is  a  rever- 
ence due  to  the  principles  of  religion  that  obliges  us  not 
to  cast  pearls  before  swine,  lest  they  trample  them  under 
their  feet^  and  turn  again  a?id  rend  us.  ^Hereupon  with- 
out any  reverence  to  his  age,  or  so  much  respect  to  hu- 
manity itself,  he  was  rudely  dragged  away,  and  unmer- 
cifully beaten,  they  that  were  near,  kicking  him  with 
their  feet,  and  striking  him  with  their  fists  ;  they  that 
were  further  off,  throwing  at  him  what  they  could  meet 
with,  making  whatsoever  came  next  to  hand  the  instru- 
ments of  their  fury  :  every  man  looking  upon  it   as  im- 

f  Epist.  Eccles.  Liigd.  &  Vien.  ap.  Euseb  ubi  supr.  c.  l.p.  159. 
g  KotAH  «  (Brgoc  Tiff  ttVsfs/c  Ao'^iff  )£(i<|>a>!r<c,  \7rcfi  J.^oymvs-nctf/iiy'rnr  Ta»  t*  ^u'ova.  ht' 
>«»7a)i'5.T*v2f3-»3-;y.     Origen.  de  Martyr,  p,  169. 


318  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENiEUS. 

pious  and  piacular,  not  to  do  something  that  might  tes- 
tify his  petulant  scorn  and  rage  against  him.  For  by 
this  means  they  thought  to  revenge  the  quarrel  of  their 
gods.  But  their  savage  cruelty  thought  it  too  much 
kindness  to  despatch  him  at  once,  it  is  like  they  intend- 
ed him  a  second  tragedy,  which  if  so,  heaven  disap- 
pointed their  designs.  For  being  taken  up  with  scarce 
so  much  breath  us  would  entitle  him  to  live,  he  was 
thrown  into  the  prison,  where  two  days  after  he  resigned 
up  his  soul  to  God. 

5.  The  church  of  Lyons  being  thus  deprived  of  its 
venerable  guide,  none  could  stand  fairer  for  the  chair 
than  Irenseus,  a  person  honoured  and  admired  by  all, 
who  succeeded  accordingly  about  the  year  CLXXIX.  in 
a  troublesome  and  tempestuous  time.  But  he  was  a 
wise  and  skilful  pilot,  and  steered  the  ship  with  a  pru- 
dent conduct.  And  need  enough  there  was  both  of  his 
courage  and  his  conduct;  for  the  church  at  this  time 
was  not  only  assaulted  bv  enemies  from  without,  but 
undermined  and  betrayed  by  heresies  within.  The  at- 
tempts of  the  one  he  endured  with  meekness  and  pati- 
ence, while  he  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  infection  and 
poison  of  the  other  by  a  diligent  and  vigilant  circum- 
spection, discovering  their  persons,  laying  open  their 
designs,  confuting  and  condemning  their  errours,  so  that 
thei?'  Jolly  was  made  manifest  unto  all.  The  author  of 
the  ancient  ''Synodicon  published  by  Pappus,  tells  us  of 
a  provincial  Synod  held  at  Lyons  by  Irenasus,  where  with 
the  assistance  and  suffrage  of  twelve  other  bishops  he 
condemned  the  heresies  of  Valentinus,  Marcion,  Basili- 
des,  and  the  rest  of  that  antichristian  crew.  Whence  he 
derived  this  intelligence,  I  know  not,  it  not  being  menti- 
oned by  any  other  of  the  ancients.  However  the  thing 
itself  is  not  im.probable,  Irenasus's  zeal  against  that  sort 
of  men  engaging  him  to  oppose  them  both  by  word  and 
writing,  and  especiailly  when  it  is  remembered  what  him- 
self informs  us  of,  that  they  had  invaded  his  own  province, 
and  were  come  home  to  his  very  door.  For  having  given 

h  Edit.  Argent.  1601.  4.  pag.  C 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN^US.  319 

usan  account  of  Marcus,  one  of  those  Gnostic  heresiarchs, 
and  his  followers,  their  beastly  and  licentious  practices, 
and  by  what  ludicrous  and  senseless  arts,  what  magic  and 
liellish  rites  they  were  wont  to  ensnare  and  initiate  their 
seduced  proselytes,  he  tells  us',  they  were  come  into  the 
countries  round  him,  all  along  the  Roan,  where  they  ge- 
nerally prevailed  (which  seems  to  have  been  observed 
as  a  maxim  and  first  principle  by  all  authors  of  sects)  up- 
on the  weaker  sex,  corrupting  their  minds,  and  debauch- 
ing their  bodies,  whose  cauterized  consciences  being  af- 
terwards awakened,  some  of  them  made  public  confes- 
sion of  their  crimes,  others  though  deserting  their  party, 
were  ashamed  to  return  to  the  church,  while  others  made 
a  desperate  and  total  apostasy  from  any  pretences  to  the 
faith.  With  some  of  these  ringleaders  ''Irenasus  had 
personally  encountered,  and  read  the  books  of  others, 
which  gave  him  occasion  (what  the  desires  of  many  had 
importuned  him  to  undertake)  to  set  upon  that  elabo- 
rate work  against  heresies,  wherein  he  has  fully  display- 
ed their  wuld  and  fantastic  principles,  their  brutish  and 
abominable  practices,  and  with  such  infinite  pains  endea- 
voured to  refute  them  :  though  indeed  so  prodigiously 
extravagant,. so  utterly  irreconcilable  were  they  to  any 
principles  of  sober  reason,  that  as  he  himself  observes, 
it  was  victory  enough  over  them,  only  to  discover  and 
detect  them.  This  work  he  composed  in  the  time  of 
Eleutherius  bishop  of  Rome,  as  is  evident  from  his  cata- 
logue '°of  the  bishops  of  that  see,  ending  in  Eleutherius, 
the  twelfth  successive  bishop,  who  did  then  possess  the 
place. 

6.  And  indeed  it  was  but  time  for  Irenaius  and  the 
rest  of  the  wise  and  holy  bishops  of  those  days  to  bestir 
themselves,  grievous  wolves  having  entered  in,  arid  made 
havoc  of  the  Jiock.  The  field  of  the  church  was  mise- 
rably, over-run  with  tares,  which  did  not  only  endan- 
ger the  choking  of  religion  within  the  church,  but  ob- 
struct the   plantuig   and  propagating  the  faith  among 

i  Adv.  Hares.  1.  1.  c.  9.  p,  72.  vid.  Hieron.  Epist.  ad  Theodor.  p.  196. 
k  Praef.  ad  lib.  1.  p.  2.  1  Lib.  1.  c.  ult.  p.  1".?.  m  Lib.  3.  c.  3.  p.  So.", 

&  ap.  Eus.  1.  5.  c-  6.  p.  l'''!. 


320  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN^CJS. 

them  that  were  without.  Nothing  being  more  common 
ly  objected  against  the  truth  and  divinity  of  the  Christi- 
an rehgion,  than  that  they  were  rent  and  torn  into  so 
many  schisms  and  heresies.  "St.  Clemens  of  Alexan- 
dria particularly  encounters  this  exception,  some  of 
whose  excellent  reasonings  are  to  this  effect.  The  first 
thing  (says  he)  they  charge  upon  us,  and  pretend  why 
they  cannot  embrace  the  faith,  is  the  diversity  of  sects 
that  are  among  us,  truth  being  delayed  andneglected,  while 
some  assert  one  thing  and  some  another.  To  which  he 
answers,  that  there  were  various  sects  and  parties  both 
among  the  Jews,  and  the  philosophers  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  yet  no  man  thought  this  a  sufficient  reason  why  they 
should  cease  to  study  philosophy,  or  adhere  to  the  Jew- 
ish rites  and  discipline  :  that  our  Lord  had  foretold,  that 
errours  would  spring  up  w*ith  truth,  like  tares  growing 
up  with  the  wheat,  and  that  therefore  it  was  no  wonder 
if  it  accordingly  came  to  pass,  and  that  we  ought  not  to 
he  wanting  to  our  duty  because  others  cast  oft' theirs,  but 
rather  stick  closer  to  them  who  continue  constant  in  the 
profession  of  the  truth  :  that  a  mind  diseased  and  dis- 
tempered with  error  and  idolatry,  ought  no  more  to  be 
discouraged  from  complying  with  an  institution  that  will 
cure  it,  by  reason  of  some  differences  and  divisions  that 
are  in  it,  than  a  sick  man  would  refuse  to  take  any  medicine, 
because  of  the  different  opinions  that  are  among  physici- 
ans, and  that  they  do  not  all  use  the  same  prescriptions  : 
that  the  apostles  hath  told  us,  that  there  must  he  heresies, 
that  they  that  are  approved  may  be  made  manifest^  that 
they  heartily  entertain  the  Christain  doctrine,  improve 
and  persevere  in  faith  and  a  holy  life  :  that  if  truth  be 
difficult  to  be  discerned,  yet  the  finding  it  out  will  abun- 
dantly recompense  the  trouble  and  the  labour :  that  a 
wise  man  would  not  refuse  to  eat  of  fruit,  because 
he  must  take  a  little  pains  to  discover  what  is  ripe  and 
real,  from  that  which  is  only  painted  and  counterfeit: 
Shall  the  traveller  resolve  not  to  go  his  journey  because 
there  are  a  great  many  ways  that  cross  and  th\\'art  the 

n  Stromat.  1.7.  p.  753. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN^EUS.  321 

common  road,  and  not  rather  inquire  which  is  the  plain 
and  king's  high-way  '?  or  the  husbandman  refuse  to  till 
his  ground,  because  Meeds  grow  up  together  with  the 
plants  ?  We  ought  rather  to  make  these  differences  an 
argument  and  incentive  the  more  accurately  to  examine 
truth  from  falsehood,  and  realities  from  pretences,  that 
escaping  the  snares  that  are  plausibly  laid,  we  may  attain 
lU  ivriyva^r.v -fovTw;  i7n(  ^KiSiiui,  to  the.  knowlcdgc  of  that  wliich 
is  really  truth  indeed,  and  which  is  not  hard  to  find,  of 
them  that  sincerely  seek  it.  But  to  return  back  to  Ire- 
njeus. 

7.  Having  passed  over  the  times  of  the  emperor  Com- 
modus   (the   only  honour  of  whose  reign  was,  that  he 
created  no  great  disturbance   to  the   Christians,   being 
otherwise  a   most  debauched  and   dissolute  prince,  in 
whom  the  vices  of  all  his  predecessors  seemed  to  meet 
as  in  one  common-sewer)  Eleutherius  died,  and  Victor 
succeeded  in  the  see  of  Rome.     A  man  furious  and  in- 
temperate, impatient  of  contradiction,  and  who  let  loose 
the  reins  to   an  impotent   and  ungovernable    passion. 
He  revived  the  controversy  about  the  celebration  of  Eas- 
ter, and  endeavoured  imperiously  to  impose  the   Roman 
custom,  of  keeping  it  on  the  next  Lord's  day  after  the 
Jewish  passover,  upon  the  churches  of  the  lesser  Asia, 
and  those  who  observed  the  contrary  usage  ;  and  because 
they  would  not  yield,  rashly  thundered  out  an  excommu- 
nication against  them,  not  only  endeavouring,  but  as°Eu- 
sebius  explains  it  in  the  following  words,  actually  pro- 
scribing, and  pronouncing  them  cut  off  from  the  com- 
munion of  the  church.     The  Asiatics,  little  regarding 
the  fierce   threatenings  from  Rome,  under  the  conduct 
of  Polycrates,  bishop  of  Ephesus,  stood  their  ground, 
justifying  their   observing   it   upon  the    fourteenth  day- 
after  the    appearance  of  the  moon,  let  it  fall  upon  what 
day  of  the    week  it  would,  after  the  rule  of  the  Jewish 
passover,  and  this  by  constant  tradition,  and  uninterrupt- 
ed usage  derived  from  St.  John  and  St.  Philip  the  apos- 
tles, St.  Polycarp  and  several  others  to  that  very  day.  All 

0  Lib.  5.  c.  24.  p,  192, 
S    S 


322  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN.EUS. 

Avhich  he  told  Pope  Victor,  but  prevailed  nothing  as  what 
will  satisfy  a  wilful  and  passionate  mind  ?)  to  prevent  his 
rending  the  church  in  sunder.  For  the  composure  of  this 
unhappy  schism  ^synods  were  called  in  several  places  as 
'  besides  one  at  Rome,  one  in  Palestine  under  Theophilus, 
bishop  of  Caesarea  Palestina,  and  Narcissus  Bishop  of 
Jerusalem,  another  in  Pontus  under  Palmas,  and  many 
more  in  other  places,  who  were  willing  to  lend  their 
hands  toward  the  quenching  of  the  common  flame,  ''who 
all  wrote  to  Victor,  sharply  reproving  him,  and  advising 
him  rather  to  mind  what  concerned  the  peace  of  the 
church,  and  the  love  and  unity  of  Christians  among 
one  another.  And  among  the  rest  our  Irenasus  (who 
as  Eusebius  observes,  truly  answered  his  name  in  his 
peaceable  and  peace-making  temper)  convened  a  ""synod 
of  the  churches  of  France  under  his  jurisdiction,  where 
with  thirteen  bishops  besides  himself  (says  the  foremen- 
tioned  'Synodicon)  he  considered  and  determined  of  this 
matter.  In  whose  name  he  wrote  a  synodical  epistle  to 
Pope  ^Victor,  wherein  he  told  him  that  they  agreed  with 
him  in  the  main  of  the  controversy,  but  withal  duly  and 
gravely  advised  him  to  take  heed  how  he  excommunica- 
ted whole  churches  for  observing  the  ancient  customs 
derived  down  to  them  from  their  ancestors  :  that  there 
was  as  little  agreement  in  the  manner  of  the  preparatory 
fast  before  Easter,  as  in  the  day  itself,  some  thinking 
that  they  were  to  fast  but  one  day,  (probably  he  means 
of  the  great  or  solemn  week)  others  two,  others  more, 
and  some  measuring  the  time  by  a  continued  fast  of  forty 
hours  (whether  in  memory  of  Christ  lying  so  long  in 
the  grave,  or  in  imitation  of  his  forty  days  fast  in  the 
wilderness,  I  know  not)  and  that  this  variety  was  of 
long  standing,  and  had  crept  into  several  places,  while 
the  governors  of  the  church  took  less  care  about  these 
different  customs,  who  yet  maintained  a  sincere  and 
mutual  love  and  peace  towards  one  another,  a  thing  prac- 
tised by  all  his  own  pious  predecessors,  putting  him  in 
mind  of  Anicetus  and  Polycarp,  who  though  they  could 

p  Euseb.  ibid.  c.  23.  p.  190.  q  Il)id.  c.  24.  p.  192.        r  Ibid,   c  23.   p 

:91.        s  Ubi  supr.  p.  r.         t  Ibid.  c.  24;.  p.  192. 


The  life  of  ST.  IRENiEUS.  323 

not  so  fur  convince  each  other  as  to  lay  aside  their  differ- 
ent usages,  did  yet  mutually  embrace,  orderly  receive 
the  communion  together,  and  peaceably  part  from  one 
another.  ^And  letters  to  the  same  effect  he  wrote  to  se- 
veral other  bishops  for  allaying  the  difference  thus  unhap- 
pily started  in  the  church. 

8.  The  calm  and  quiet  days  which  the  church  had  for 
some  years  of  late  enjoyed,  now  expired,  and  the  wind 
changed  into  a  more  stormy  quarter,  Severus  the  empe- 
ror, hitherto  favourable,  began  a  bitter  and  bloody  per- 
secution against  the  Christians,  prosecuted  with  great 
severity  in  all  parts  of  the  empire.  Himself  had  here- 
tofore governed  "this  very  province  of  Lyons,  and  pro- 
bably had  taken  peculiar  notice  of  Irenseus,  and  the  flou- 
rishing state  of  the  church  in  that  city,  and  might  there- 
fore give  more  particular  orders  for  the  proceeding 
against  them  in  this  place.  The  persecution,  that  in 
other  parts  picked  out  some  few"  to  make  them  exem- 
plary here  served  all  alike,  and  went  through  with  the 
work.  For  so  "" Gregory  of  Tours,  and  the  ancient 
martyrologies''"  inform  us,  that  Irenceus  having  been  pre- 
pared by  several  torments,  was  at  length  put  to  death 
(beheaded  say  the  Greeks'',  likely  enough)  and  together 
with  him  almost  all  the  Christians  of  that  vast  populous 
city,  whose  numbers  could  not  be  reckoned  up,  so  that 
the  streets  of  the  city  flowed  with  the  blood  of  Christians. 
His  body  was  taken  up  hy  Zacharias  his  presbyter,  and 
buried  in  a  vault,  laid  between  Epipodius  and  Alexan- 
der, who  had  suffered  in  the  persecution  under  Antoni- 
nus. It  is  not  easy  to  assign  the  certain  date  of  his 
martyrdom,  which  may  with  almost  equal  probability 
be  referred  to  a  double  period,  either  to  the  time  of  that 
bloody  edict  which  Severus  published  against  the  Chris- 
tians about  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign,  Ann.  Chr.  CCII. 
or  to  his  expedition  in  Britain,  Ann.  Chr.  CCVIII. 
when  he  took  Lyons  in  his  way,  and  might  see  execu- 
tion done  with  his  own  eyes.     And  indeed  the  vastnum- 

u  yEl.  Spartian.  in  vit.  Sever,  c.  3.  p.  335.  v  Hist.  Franc.  1.  1.  c  29. 

w  MaruT.  Rom.  nd  Jun.  XZV'III.  Adon.  Martyr.  IV  KaJeiid.  Jul. 
»  Men.  Grsec.  TJ^  k-/.  ™  A^;«. 


324  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENiEUS. 

bers  that  are  there  said  to  have  siifFerecl,  agree  well 
enough  with  the  temper  of  that  fierce  and  cruel  prince, 
who  had  conceived  before  a  particular  displeasure  against 
the  citizens  of  Lyons,  and  a  worse  against  the  Christians 
there. 

9.  He  was  a  true  lover  of  God,  and  of  the  souls  of 
men,  for  the  promoting  whose  happiness  he  thought  no 
dangers  or  difficulties  to  be  great ;  he  scrupled  not  to 
leave  his  own  country,  to  take  so  troublesome  and  tedi- 
ous a  journey,  and  instead  of  the  smooth  and  polite  man- 
ners of  the  Eastern  nations  to  fix  his  dwelling  among  a 
people  of  a  wild  and  savage  temper,  and  whom  he  must 

convert  to  civility,  before  he  gained  them  to  religion 

Nor  was  it  the  least  part  of  his  trouble  (as  himself  •  plain- 
ly intimates)  that  he  was  forced  to  learn  the  language  of 
the  country,  a  rugged  and  (as  he  calls  it)  barbarous  dia- 
lect before  he  could  do  any  good  upon  them.  All  which 
and  a  great  deal  more,  he  cheerfully  underAvent,  that  he 
might  be  serviceable  to  the  great  interests  of  men.  And 
because  he  knew  that  nothing  usually  more  hinders  the 
progress  of  piety,  than  to  have  men's  minds  vi-iated  and 
depraved  with  false  and  corrupt  notions  and  principles, 
and  that  nothing  could  more  expose  the  Christian  reli- 
gion to  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  wise  and  discerning 
men,  than  the  wild  schemes  of  those  absurd  and  ridicu- 
lous opinions  that  were  then  set  on  foot,  therefore  he  set 
himself  with  all  imaginable  industry  to  oppose  them, 
reading  over  all  their  writings,  considering  and  unra- 
velling all  their  principles  with  incomparable  patience  as 
well  as  diligence,  Avhence  he  is  deservedly'  styled  by 
^  Tertullian,  Omnium  doctr'inarum  ciiriosissimus  explora- 
tory the  most  curious  searcher  into  all  kinds  of  doctrines. 
In  the  successful  managery  whereof  he  was  greatly  ad- 
vantaged by  the  natural  acumen  ajid  subtelty  of  his  parts, 
and  those  studies  of  philosoj)hy  and  human  literature,  of 
which  he  had  made  himself  master  in  his  younger  days, 
sufficient  footsteps  whereof  appear  in  the  v/ritings  which 
he  left  behind  him.     For  besides  his  epistles,  he  wrote 

y  Praf.  ad.  1. 1.  p.  4.  z  Adv.  Valent.  c.  5  p.  252, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IRENtEUS.  325 

many  volumes  (though  he  "  that  tells  us  that  he  compo- 
sed an  ecclesiastical  history,  which  Eusebius  made  use 
of,  reckons  up  one  more  than  ever  he  wrote,  and  doubt- 
less mistook  it  for  his  work,  Adversus  Haereses)  which 
are  lost,  except  his  five  books  against  heresies^  entitled 
anciently  xu^i  iy.ifx>^ «,  *vat7go7r«c  tm?  -{iuiuiniA.^  ym^ictr,  The  conjutation 
and  subverson  of  knowledge  falsely  so  called^  i.  e.  of  Gnos- 
ticism, those  abstruse  and  mystical  heretics  pretending 
that  all  sublime  and  excellent  knowledge  dwelt  with 
them.  What  his  proper  style  and  phrase  was  in  these 
books  is  not  easily  guessed,  the  far  greatest  part  of  the 
original  Greek  being  wanthig  (the  conjecture  of  those 
who  will  have  them  originally  penned  in  Latin  is  not 
worth  the  mentioning)  probably  it  was  simple  and  un- 
aftected,  vulgar  and  ordinary,  embased,  it  is  like,  and  he 
seems  to  confess  as  much,  with  the  natural  language 
**  of  the  country  where  he  lived,  nor  had  he  studied  the 
arts  of  rhetoric,  the  ornaments  of  speech,  or  had  any 
skill  in  the  elaborate  methods  and  artifices  of  persuasion, 
as  he  modestly  "  apologizes  for  himself.  However  his 
discourses  are  grave  and  well  digested,  and  (as  far  as  the 
argument  he  manages  would  admit)  clear  and  perspicu- 
ous, in  all  which  he  betrays  a  mighty  zeal,  and  a  spirit 
prepared  for  martyrdom.  For  the  martyrs  (as  "^  Eras- 
mus truly  notes)  have  a  certain  serious,  strenuous,  and 
masculine  way  of  writing  be}  ond  other  men. 

10.  As  for  his  Avorks  themselves  *"  Photius  thus  cen- 
sures them,  that  in  some  of  them  the  accuracy  of  truth 
in  ecclesiastic  doctrines  is  sophisticated  voS-./?  >o>/!r//o7{, 
with  false  and  spurious  reasonings,  which  ought  to  be 
taken  notice  of.  In  the  books  yet  extant  there  are  some 
assertions,  that  will  not  bear  a  strict  rigorous  examina- 
tion, the  principal  whereof  are  such  as  we  have  already 
remarked  in  the  life  of  Justin  martyr,  the  rest  are  of  ari 
inferior  and  more  inconsiderable  notice.  As  for  his  af 
firming  that  our  Lord  was  near  ^ fifty  years  of  age  at  the 

a  Volaterr.  Comment.  Urban.  1. 16.  col,  590. 

b  Loc.  citat.  c  Pixfat.  ut  supr.  d  Prscf.  in  Ir<tn. 

e  Cod.  CXX.  col  301. 

f  Adv.  Hsi-es.  1.  2.  c.  39.  p.  192  &.  c.  40.  ibid. 


326  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  IREN^US. 

time  of  his  public  ministry,  it  was  an  error  into  which  he 
was  betrayed  partly  from  a  false  supposition,  that  our 
Lord  must  be  of  a  more  mature  and  elderly  age,  that  so 
he  might  deliver  his  doctrine  with  the  greater  authority  ; 
partly  from  a  mistaken  report  (which  he  had  somewhere 
picked  up,  and  it  may  be  from  his  master  Papias)  that 
St.  John  and  the  rest  of  the  apostles  had  so  affirmed  and 
taught  it ;  and  partly  out  of  opposition  to  his  adver- 
saries, who  maintained  that  our  Saviour  staid  no  longer 
upon  earth  than  till  the  thirty-first  year  of  his  age ; 
against  whom  th2  eagerness  of  disputation  tempted  him 
to  make  good  his  assertion  from  any  plausible  pretence, 
and  to  take  the  hint  (though  his  inipetiis^  and  the  desire 
of  prosecuting  his  argument  would  not  give  his  thoughts 
leave  to  cool,  and  take  the  place  into  sober  consideration) 
from  that  question  of  the  Jews  to  Christ,  thou  art  not  yet 
Jifty  years  oldy  and  hast  thou  seen  Abraham  ?  whence  iyi 
transitu  he  took  it  for  granted  that  the  Jews  had  some 
s^round  for  what  they  said,  and  that  he  must  be  near 
that  age. 

11.  His  care  to  have  his  writings  derived  pure  and 
uncorrupted  to  posterity  was  great  and  admirable,  add- 
ing to  his  book  ne^i  i-ySo^^'Sr,  this  solemn  and  religious  ob- 
testation ;  ^  1  adjure  thee,  whoever  thou  art  that  shalt 
transcribe  this  book,  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  his 
glorious  coming,  ivherein  he  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead,  that  thou  compare  what  thou  transcribest,  and  dili- 
gently correct  it  by  the  copy  from  whence  thou  trans- 
cribest it,  and  that  thou  likewise  transcribe  thjs  adjuration^ 
and  annex  it  to  thy  copy.  And  well  had  it  been  with 
the  ancient  writers  of  the  church,  had  their  books  been 
treated  with  this  care  and  reverence  :  more  of  them  had 
been  conveyed  down  to  us  ;  at  least  those  few  that  are, 
had  arrived'  more  sound  and  unpolluted.  I  note  no  more 
(and  it  is  what  Eusebius  long  since  thought  worth  tak- 
ing notice  of)  than  that  in  his  time  miraculous  gifts  and 
powers  were  very  common  in  the  church.  For  so  he 
^  tells  us,  that  some  expelled  and  cast  out  devils,  the  per- 


g  Ap.  Euseb.  H.Eccl.l.  5.c.  20.  p.  187. 
h  Adv.  Hxres.  1.  ij.  c.  57   p.  2l>i.  i>-  ap.  E 


useb. I.  5.  c.  7.  p-  17l. 


THE  LIEE  OF  ST.  IRENiEUS.  32^ 

sons  often  embracing  Christianity  upon  it ;  others  had 
visions  and  revelations,  and  foretold  things  to  come  ; 
some  spake  ail  manner  of  languages,  and  as  occasion 
was,  discovered  men's  thoughts  and  secret  purposes,  and 
expounded  the  mysteries  and  deep  things  of  God ; 
others  miraculously  healed  the  sick,  and  by  laying  their 
hands  upon  them  restored  their  health,  and  many  who 
raised  the  dead,  the  persons  so  raised  living  among  them 
many  years  after.  The  gifts  (as  he  speaks)  which  God 
in  the  name  of  our  crucified  Lord  then  bestowed  upon 
the  church  being  innumerable,  all  which  they  sincerely 
and  freely  improved  to  the  great  advantage  and  benefit 
of  the  world.  Whence  with  just  reason  he  urges  the 
truth  of  our  religion  in  general,  and  how  much  advan- 
tage true  Christians  had  to  triumph  over  all  those  impos- 
tors and  seducers,  who  sheltered  themselves  under  the 
venerable  title  of  being  Christians. 

HIS   WRITINGS. 

Extant.  Liber  de  Ogdoade. 

Adversus  Hiereses,  Eplstola  ad  Blastum  de  Schis- 

seu  mate. 

De    refutatione    &:    eversione    Ad  Florinum  de  IMonarchia, 
falsa;  scientiae,  Libri  V.  seu, 

Quod   Deus  non  sit  conditor 
Not  extant.  mali,  Epistola. 

Ad  Victorcm  Episcopum  Ro- 
Libellus  de    Scientia   adversus       manum  de  Paschate,   Epis- 

Gentes.  tola. 

Demonstratio  Apostolicse  prse-  Ad  varies  Episcopos  de  eadem 
dicationis,      ad     Marciaiiuui       re,  Epistolse  plures. 
fratrein.  Varioru:n  Tractat«um  Liber. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS. 

BISHOP  OF  ANTIOCH. 


The  great  obscurity  of  his  originals.  His  learned  and  ingenuous  educa- 
tion, and  natural  parts.  An  account  of  his  conversion  to  Christianity, 
and  the  reasons  inducing  him  thereunto,  collected  out  of  his  own  wri- 
tings. His  sciupling  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  The  great 
difficulty  of  entertaining  that  principle.  Synesius  his  case.  Theo- 
jihilus  his  conquiring  this  objection.  His  great  satisfaction  in  the 
Christian  religion.  His  election  to  the  bishoprick  of  Antioch.  His 
desire  to  convert  Autolycus.  Autolycus  who.  His  mighty  prejudice 
against  Christianity.  Theophilus's  undertaking  him,  and  his  free 
and  impartial  debating  the  case  with  him.  His  excellent  menage  of 
the  controversy.  His  vigorous  opposing  the  heresies  of  those  times. 
His  books  against  Maricon  and  Hermogenes.  His  death,  and  the  time 
of  it.    St..  Hierom's  Character  of  his  works.     His  writings. 

1.  THOUGH  the  ancients  furnish  us  with  very  few 
aotices  concerning  this  venerable  bishop,  yet  perhaps  it 
may  not  be  unacceptable  to  the  reader  to  pick  up  that 
little  which  may  be  found.  The  mistake  is  not  worth 
confuting  and  scarce  deserves  mentioning,  that  makes 
him  the  same  with  that  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  to  whom 
St.  Luke  dedicates  his  evangelical  writings,  so  great 
the  distance  of  time  (if  there  were  nothing  more)  be- 
tween them.  Whether  he  was  born  at  Antioch  is  un- 
certain :  but  wherever  he  was  born,  his  parents  were 
Gentiles,  by  whom  he  was  brought  up  in  the  common 
rites  of  that  religion  that  then  governed  the  world.  They 
gave  him  all  the  accomplishments  of  a  learned  and  libe- 
ral education,  and  vast  improvements  he  made  in  the 
progress  of  his  studies,  so  that  he  was  thoroughly  versed 

T    t 


* 


330  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS. 

in  the  writings  of  all  the  great  masters  of  learning  and 
philosophy  in  the  heathen  world  :  which  being  set  off 
with  a  quick  and  a  pleasant  wit  (as  appears  from  his 
disputes  against  the  Gentiles)  rendered  him  a  man  of 
no  inconsiderable  note  and  account  among  them. 

2.  When  or  by  what  means  converted  to  Christiani- 
ty, is  impossible  particularly  to  determine  :  thus  much 
only  may  be  gathered  from  the  discourses  which  he 
left  behind  him.  Being  a  man  of  an  inquisitive  tem- 
per, and  doubtless  of  a  very  honest  mind,  he  gave  up 
himself  to  a  more  free  and  impartial  search  into  the  na- 
ture and  state  of  things.  He  found  that  the  account  of 
things  which  that  religion  gave,  wherein  he  was  then  en- 
gaged, was  altogether  unsatisfactory,  that  the  stories  of 
their  gods  were  absurd  and  frivolous,  and  some  of  them 
prophane  and  impious,  that  their  rites  of  worship  were 
trifling  and  ridiculous  ;  he  considered  the  several  parts 
of  the  creation,  and  that  excellent  providence  that  govern- 
ed the  world,  wherein  he  easily  descerned  the  plain  notices 
of  a  wife  and  omnipotent  being,  and  that  God  had  pur- 
posely disposed  things  thus,  that  his  grandeur  and  ma- 
jesty might  appear  to  all.  Accordingly  he  directs  his 
friend  to  this  method  of  conviction,  as  that  which  doubt- 
less he  had  found  most  successful  and  satisfactory  to 
himself.  He  bids  "him  survey  and  consider  the  works 
of  God,  the  vicissitude  and  alteration  of  the  times  accord- 
ing ^o  their  proper  seasons,  the  revolutions  of  the  hea- 
venly bodies,  the  wisely  established  course  of  the  ele- 
ments, the  beautiful  order  and  disposition  of  nights  and 
days,  and  months  and  years,  the  pleasant  and  admirable 
variety  of  seeds,  plants,  and  fruits,  the  manifold  genera- 
tions of  beasts,  birds,  creeping  things,  fishes,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  watery  regions ;  the  prudent  instinct 
by  which  all  these  creatures  are  excited  to  preserve  their 
kind  and  nourish  their  young,  and  that  not  for  their  own 
advantage,  but  for  the  necessity  and  pleasure  of  man- 
kind, God  by  a  wise  and  secret  providence  having  so  or- 
dained, that  all  things  should  be  in  subjection  unto  man. 

»  Ad  Autolyc.  1.  1.  p.  72. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS.  33i 

And  indeed  so  strangely  was  he  ravished  with  the  consi- 
deration of  this  argument ,  that  he    professes  ^   that   no 
man  is  able  duly  to  describe  the  singular  order  &:  econo- 
my of  the  creation,  no  though  he  had  a  thousand  mouths, 
and  as  many  tongues,  and  were  to  live    in    tlie  world   a 
thousand  years,  <ftd.  to  j'nr»j^aw.:»  m«'^»s®',  a,  tovttxktov  ■/<ro^*oic  tS  e**,  so 
incomprehensibly  great  and  unfathomable  is  that  Divine 
Wisdom  that  shines  in  the  works  of  the  creation.     Thus 
prepared  he  seems  to  have  betaken  himself  (and  to  this 
also  he  advises  Autolycus  ")  to  the  consideration  of  other 
volumes,  the   books  that  contained  the  religion    of  the 
Christians,  especially  the   writings  of  the  prophets,  and 
to  have  weighed  the  importance  of  their  revelations,  the 
variety  of  the  persons,   the    meanness  and  obscurity    of 
their  education,  their  exact  harmony  and  agreement,  the 
certainty  of  their  predictions,  and  how    accurately  the 
prophecy  and  the  event  met  together,  so  that  (as  he  adds'') 
whoever  would  but  seriously  apply  himself  to  the  study 
ofthem,  hada  way  ready   open    to  come   to  the   exact 
knowledge  of  the  truth. 

3.  One  thing  there  was,  which  he  himself^  seems  to 
intimate,  did  more  especially  obstruct  his  full  compliance 
with  the  Christian  doctrine,  the  belief  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  schools  of  philo- 
sophy, where  he  had  been  taught  that  from  a  privation 
of  life  there  can  be  no  return  to  the  possession  of  it ; 
it  is  like  he  could  not  perceive  how  men's  scattered  dust 
after  so  many  ages  could  be  recollected,  and  built  up  a- 
gain  into  the  same  bodies.  Indeed  there  is  scarce  any 
principle  of  the  Christian  faith,  that  generally  met  with 
more  opposition  from  the  wise  and  the  learned,  and  which 
was  more  difficultly  admitted  into  their  creed.  When 
S.  Paul  preached  to  the  philosophers  at  Athens,  while  he 
told  them  of  a  judgment  to  come,  they  made  no  scruple 
to  give  it  entertainment,  it  being  a  principle  evident  by 
natural  light,  till  he  discoursed  of  a  future  resurrection  ; 
and  this  they  rejected  with  contempt  and  scorn,  and  when 
they  heard  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  some  mocked^; 

b  IbM.  I.  2.  p.  51.      c  IbM.  p.  110,  111.      d  Ibid.  p.  JH.      «-  Lib.  I.  p.  78 
f  Acts  XV 11.  32 


ap2  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS. 

and  the  most  grave  and  sober  took  time  to  consider  of  It  ; 
others  said,  we  will  hear  thee  again  of  this  matter.     And 
Synesius  himself,  that  great  philosopher,  after  his  being 
baptized  into  the   christian  religion,   when   courted  by 
Theophilus  of  Alexandria  to  take  upon  him  the  bishop- 
rick   of  Ptolemais,  would  not  yield  till  he  had  publicly 
entered  his  dissent  to  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection^  at 
least  as  to  the    common    explication  of  the  article  :   he 
looked  upon  it  as  ("eg'^vi/^  ^''■off^Tsv,   as  containing  a  kind  of 
sacred  and  ineffable  mystery  in  it,  but  could  not  com- 
ply with  the  vulgar  and  received  opinions.  ;  being  m  il- 
ling  probably  to  admit  it,  if  he  might  explain  it  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  philosophy,  and  after  the  Platonic 
mode.     Though   why   the    incredibility  of  this   article 
should  stick  w^ith  any   that  own  a  Being  of  infinite  pow  er, 
I  see   not:   it   being  equally  easy   to  Omnipotence  (as'' 
Athenagoras  and  others  discourse  upon  this  argument) 
to  restore  our  scattered  parts,  and  to  combine  them  a- 
gain  into  the  same  mass,  as  it  was  at  first  to  create  them 
out  of  nothing.     But  to  return  to  our  Theophilus.     By 
a  frequent  reflection '  upon  the  many    shadows   of  a  re- 
surrection which  God  had  impressed  upon  the  course  of 
nature,  and  the   standing  pJui^nomena  of  Divine   Provi- 
dence,  he  conquered  this  objection,  especially   after  he 
had  conversed  with,  and  embraced   the  holy    volumes, 
wherein  these    things  were    so  positively   declared    and 
published.     And  thus  he  became  a  Christian,  being  baf- 
fled and  disappointed  in  all  other  refuges,  he  took  sanc- 
tuary in  the    church,    which  (as  himself  expresses  it"") 
God  has  set  in  the  world,  like  an  island  in  the  midst   of 
the  sea,into  whose  safe  and  convenient  hai  bours  the  lovers 
of  truth  might  fly,  and  all  those  who  desired  to  be  saved, 
and  to  escape  the  judgement   and  the  wrath   to   come. 
And  glad  was  he  that  he '  was  got  thither,  rejoicing  that 
he  bore  the  name  of  a  Christian,  t-:  (dio,Sfi>:i<.  w/^a,  that  name 
was  so  dear  to  God,  how  much  soever  otherwise  despis- 
ed and  scorned  by  an  ignorant  and  evil  age. 

g  Synes.  Epist.  CV  p.  249    vid.  Eiiagr.  H.  Ecc!.  1.  1.  c.  15.  p.  273.      h  De 
Kcaurr.  raort.  p.  43.    i  Loc.  supr.  c  tat.     k  Lib.  2.  p.  93, 1-4.   I.  Vid.  1, 1.  p.  69. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS.  533 

4.  About  the  year"'  CLXIX  ("Eutychius  refers  it  to 
the  sixteenth  year  of  Antoninus's  reign)  or  rather  the  year 
before,  his  predecessor  Eros  being  dead,   he  was  made 
bishop  of  Antioch,  accounted  by  some  the  sixth,  by  oth- 
ers the  seventh  bishop  of  that  see.     And  neither  of  them 
mistaken,  both  being  true  according  to  different  compu- 
tations, some  reckoning  S.  Peter  the  first,  while   others 
beholding  him    as  an  apostle,  and   as  acting  in  a  larger 
and  a  more  ecumenical  sphere  than  a  private  bishop,  be- 
gin the  account  from  Euodius  as  the  first  bishop   of  it. 
S.  Theophilus  thus  fixed  in  his  charge,   set  himself  to 
promote  the  true  interest  and  happiness  of  men,  and  as 
goodness  always  delights  to  communicate  and  diffuse  it- 
self, he  studied  to  bring  over  others  to  that   faith   which 
he  had  entertained  himself.    Among  the  rest  he  attempt- 
ed a  person  of  note,  his  great  friend  Autolycus.     Who 
this  xVutolycus  was  we  have  no  account,  more  than  what 
is  given  us  by  Theophilus  himself.  "     He  was  a   person 
learned  and  eloquent,  curious  in  all  arts  and  sciences,  the 
acquist  whereof  he  pursued  with   so  indefatigable  a  dili- 
gence, that  he  would  bury  himself  among   books,    and 
steal  hours  for  study  from  his  necessary  rest,  spending 
whole  nights  in  libraries,  and  in  conversing  with  the  mo- 
numents of  the  dead.     But  withal  a  Gentile,  ^  infinitely 
zealous  for  his  religion,  and  unreasonably  prejudiced  a- 
gainst  Christianity,  which  he  cried  out  of  as  the  highest 
folly  and  madness,  and  loaded  with  all  the  common  char- 
ges and  calumnies  which  cither  the  wit  or  malice  of  those 
times  had  invented  to  make  it  odious,  and  for  the  defence 
and  vindication  whereof  he  had  bitterly  quarrelled  with 
Theophilus.     This  notwithstanding,  he  is  not  affrighted 
from  undertaking  him,  but  treats  him  with  all  the  freedom 
and  ingenuity  that  became   a  friend   and  a  philosopher, 
tells  '^  him  that  the  cause  was  in  himself,  why  he  did  not 
discern  and  embrace  the  truth,  that  his  wickedness  and 
impieties  had  depraved  his  mind,  and  darkened  his  un- 
derstanding, and  that  men  were  not  to  blame  the  sun  for 

m  Euscb.  Chron.eod.anno.     n  Annal.  p.  359.     o  Theopli.  1.  3.  p.  119. 
p  Ibid.  1.  2.  p.  80.     q  Ibid.  I.  1.  p.  rO. 


334  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS. 

want  of  light,  when  themselves  were  blind  and  wanted 
eyes  to  see  it ;  that  the  rust  and  soil  must  be  wiped  off 
from  the  glass  before  it  would  make  a  true  and  clear  re- 
presentation of  the  object ;  and  that  God  would  not  dis- 
cover himself,  but  to  purged  and  prepared  minds,  and 
such  who  by  innocency  and  a  divine  life  were  become  fit 
and  disposed  to  receive  and  entertain  him.     Then  he  ex- 
plains to  him  the  nature  of  God,  and  gives  him  an  ac- 
count of  the  origin  of  the  world  according  to  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  disproves  and  derides  the  ridiculous  deities 
of  the  heathens,  and  particularly  answers  those  black  im- 
putations usually  laid  upon  the  Cliristians  ;  and  because 
Autolycus  had  mainly  urged  the  lateness  and  novelty  of 
the  Christian  faith,  he  shows  at  large  how  much  superi- 
or it  was  in  many  parts  of  it   in  point  of  seniority,  and 
that  by  many  ages,  to  any  thing  which  the  heathen  reli- 
gion could  pretend  to  :  pressing  him   at  every   turn  to 
comply  with  so  excellent  a  religion,  and  assuring  him 
the  '  people  whom  he  invited   him  to,  were  so  for   from 
being  such  as  he  represented  them,  that  they  lived  under 
the  conduct  of  modesty  and  sobriety,  temperance  and 
•chastity,  banished  injustice,  and  rooted  up  all   vice  and 
wickedness,  loved  righteousness,   lived  under    law    and 
rule,  exercised  a  divine   religion,    acknowledged   God, 
served  the  truth,  were  under  the  preservation  of  grace 
and  peace,  directed  by  a  sacred  word,  taught  by  wisdom, 
rewarded  by  a  life  immortal,  and  governed  by  God  him- 
self.  What  the  issue  of  his  discourses  was,  we  cannot  tell, 
but  may  probably  hope  they  had  the  desired  success,  es- 
pecially since  we  find  '  Autolycus  after  the  first  confer- 
ence a  little  more  favourable  to  the  cause,  abating  of  his 
conceived  displeasure  against  Theophilus,  and  desiring 
of  him  a  further  account  of  his  religion.     And  certainly 
if  wisdom  and  eloquence,  if  strength  of  reason,  and  a 
prudent  management  of  the  controversy  were  able  to  do 
it,  he  could  not  well  fail  of  reclaiming  the  man  from  his 
error  and  idolatry. 

5.  Nor  was  he  more  solicitous  to   gain  others  to  the 
faith,  than   he  was  to  keep  those  who  already  had  em- 

r  Lib.  3-  p.  127.     s  Lib.  2.  p.  80 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  THEOPHILUS.  335 

braced  it  from  being  infected  and  depraved  with  er- 
rour.  For  which  cause  he  continually  stood  upon  his 
guard,  faithfully  gave  warning  of  the  approach  of  here- 
sv,  and  vigorously  set  himself  against  it.  For  notwith- 
standing the  care  and  vigilance  of  the  good  and  pious 
men  of  those  days  (as'Eusebius  observes)  envious  men 
crept  in,  and  sowed  tares  among  the  sincere  apostolic 
doctrine  :  so  that  the  pastors  of  the  church  were  forced 
to  rise  up  in  every  place,  and  to  set  themselves  to  drive 
away  these  wild  beasts  from  Christ's  sheep-fold,  partly 
by  exhorting  and  warning  the  brethren,  partly  by  en- 
tering the  lists  with  the  heretics  themselves,  some  per- 
sonally  disputing  with,  and  confuting  them,  others  accu- 
rately convincing  and  refuting  their  opinions  by  the  books 
which  they  wrote  against  them.  Among  whom  he  tells 
us  was  our  Theophilus,  who  conflicted  with  these  here- 
tics, and  particularly  wrote  against  Marcion,  who  assert- 
ed two  deities,  and  that  the  soul  only,  as  being  the  di- 
vine and  better  part,  and  not  the  body,  was  capable  of 
the  happiness  of  the  other  world,  and  this  too  granted  to 
none  but  his  followers,  with  many  such  impious  and  fond 
opinions.  Another  book  he  wrote  against  Hermogenes, 
one  better  skilled  in  painting,  than  drawing  schemes  of 
new  divinity.  He  forsook  the  church,  and  fled  to  the  sto- 
ics, and  being  tinctured  with  their  principles  maintained 
matter  to  be  eternal,  out  of  which  God  created  all  things, 
and  that  all  evils  proceeded  out  of  matter,  asserting 
moreover  (as  Clemens  of  Alexandria"  informs  us)  that 
our  Lord's  body  was  lodged  in  the  sun,  ridiculously  in- 
terpreting that  place,  in  them  hath  he  set  a  tabernacle  for 
the  sun.  Nor  did  our  Theophilus  neglect  the  weak  and 
younger  part  of  the  charge,  he  had  not  only  physic  for 
the  sick,  and  strong  meat  for  them  of  full  age,  but  milk 
for  babes,  and  such  as  were  yet  unskilful  in  the  word  of 
righteousness,  composing  many  catechetic  discourses, 
that  contained  the  first  rudiments  of  the  faith. 


tH.  Eccl.  I  4.  c,  24  r,   M'^         ,-.  Iv  excerpt.  Grso.  Theo.aD.  cl.  AleX.  p- 
878.  I) . 


V' 


536  THE   LIFE    OF   ST.  THEOPHILUS. 

6.  Ke  sat  thirteen  years ''in  his  bishoprick,  (XXI.  says 
the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria'')  and  died  about  the  second 
or  third  year  of  the  emperour  Commodus,  for  that  he 
out  lived  M.  Antoninus,  is  evident  from  his  mentioning 
his"  death  and  the  time  of  his  reign  in  his  discourses  with 
Autolycus,  after  which  he  composed  those  discourses, 
but  what  kind  of  death  it  was,  whether  natural  or  vio- 
lent, is  to  me  unknown.  From  the  calmness  and  tran- 
quillity of  Commodus's  reign,  as  to  any  persecution 
against  the  Christians,  we  may  probably  guess  it  to  have 
been  a  peaceable  and  quiet  death.  Books  he  wrote  ma- 
ny, whereof  ?'St  Hierom  gives  this  character,  that  they 
w^ere  elegant  tracts,  and  greatly  conducive  to  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  church.  And  further  adds,  that  he  had  met 
with  commentaries  upon  the  gospel  and  the  proverbs  of 
Solomon,  bearing  his  name,  but  which  seemed  not  to 
answer  his  other  writings  in  the  elegancy  and  politeness 
of  the  style, 

HIS   WRITINGS. 

Extant.  Librl  aliquot  Catechetlci. 
Ad  AutolycLim  Libri  III.  Doubtful. 

Not  Extant.  Commentarii  in  Evangelium. 

Contra  Haeresin  Hermogenis.  Commentarii    in  Proverbia 
Adversus  Marcionem.  Solomonis. 

V  Niceph.  C.  P.  Chronograph,  ap.  Scahg.  p.  311. 
w  Eutych.  Annal.  p.  359.  x  Ad  Autol.  1.  3.  p.  1-38.  y  Hieron.  de 

Script,  in  Theoph. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  MELITO, 

BISHOP  OF  SARDIS. 


His  countiy  and  birth-place.  His  excellent  parts  and  learning.  His 
being  made  bishop  of  Sardis.  His  celibacy  His  prophetic  gifts.  The 
persecution  under  Marcus  Aurelius.  Melito  his  apology  for  the 
Christians.  A  fragment  of  it  cited  out  of  Eusebius.  The  great  advan- 
tages of  Christianity  to  the  empire.  His  endeavour  to  compose  the 
Paschal  controversy.  His  book  concerning  that  subject.  His  journey 
to  Jerusalem  to  search  what  books  of  the  Old  Testament  were  received 
by  that  church.  Ttie  copy  of  his  letter  to  his  brother  Onesimus  con- 
cerning the  canon  of  the  Old  Testament.  What  books  admitted  by 
the  ancient  church.  Solomon's  Proverbs  styled  by  the  ancients  the 
Book  of  Wisdom.  His  death  and  burial.  The  great  variety  of  his 
works.  Unjustly  suspected  of  dangerous  notions.  An  account  given 
of  the  titles  of  two  of  his  books  most  liable  to  suspicion.  His  writings 
enumerated. 


1.  ST.  MELITO  was  born  in  Asia,  and  probably 
at  Sardis,  the  metropolis  of  Lydia,  a  great  and  ancient 
city,  the  seat  of  the  Lydian  kings ;  it  was  one  of  the 
seven  churches  to  which  St.  John  wrote  epistles,  and 
wherein  he  takes  notice  of  some  that  durst  own  and  stand 
up  for  God  and  religion  in  that  great  degeneracy  that 
was  come  upon  it.  He  was  a  man  of  admirable  parts, 
enriched  with  the  furniture  of  all  usefulleaming,  acute 
and  eloquent,  but  especially  conversant  in  the  paths  of 
divine  knowledge,  having  made  deep  inquiries  into  all 
the  more  uncommon  parts  and  speculations  of  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine.  He  was  for  his  singular  eminency  and 
usefulness   chosen  bishop  of  Sardis,  though  we  can- 

u  u 


«^v 


J38  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  MELITO. 

not  exactly  define  the  time,  which,  were  I  to  conjecture. 
I  should  guess  it  about  the  latter  end  of  Antoninus  Pius's 
reign,  or  the  beginning  of  his  successor's.  He  filled  up 
all  the  parts  of  a  very  excellent  governor  and  guide  of 
souls,  whose  good  he  was  careful  to  advance  both  by 
word  and  writing.  Which  that  he  might  attend  with 
less  solicitude  and  distraction,  he  not  only  kept  himself 
within  the  compass  of  a  single  life,  but  was  more  than  or- 
dinarily exemplary  for  his  chastity  and  sobriety,  his  self 
denial  and  contempt  of  the  world  ;  upon  which  account 
he  is  by  Polycrates  bishop  of  Ephesus  '*  styled  an  eu- 
nuch, that  is,  in  our  Saviour's  explication,  one  of  those, 
ivho  make  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven' s 
sake  ;  who,  for  the  service  of  Religion,  and  the  hopes  of 
a  better  life,  are  content  to  deny  themselves  the  comforts 
of  a  married  state,  and  to  renounce  even  the  lawful  plea- 
sures of  this  world.  And  God,  who  delights  to  multiply 
his  grace  upon  pious  and  holy  souls,  crowned  his  other 
virtues  with  the  gift  of  prophecy,  for  so  ^  Tertullian  tells 
us,  that  he  was  accounted  by  the  orthodox  Christians  as 
a  prophet,  and  Polycratas  says  •"  of  him,  that  he  did  h  *>/« 
^nt//*a7<  Wvra  rr-^xttivtcr^ii,  was  iu  all  thlngs  governed  and  di- 
rected by  the  affiatus  and  suggestion  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Accordingly  in  the  catalogue  ^  of  his  writings  we  find  one 
«•«§<  ^ox/7fia?,  5  trgo^y^crm,  of  the  right  way  of  li\^ing,  and  con- 
cerning prophets,  and  another  concerning  prophecy. 

2.  It  was  about  the  year  CLXX.  and  the  tenth  "  of  M. 
Antoninus,  (his  brother  L.Verus,  having  died  the  year 
before  of  an  apoplexy,  as  he  sat  in  his  chariot)  when 
the  persecution  grew  high  against  the  Christians,  greedy 
and  malicious  men  taking  occasion  from  the  imperial 
edicts  lately  published,  by  all  the  methods  of  cruelty  and 
rapine  to  oppress  and  spoil  innocent  Christians.  Where- 
upon as  others,  so  especially  ^  St.  Melito  presents  an 
apology  and  humble  supplication  in  their  behalf  to  the 
emperor,  wherein,  among  other  things,  he  thus  bespeaks 
him.     ''  If  these  things,  sir,   be  done  by  your  order,  let 

a  Ap.  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.24.  p.  191.  b  Ap.  Hieron.  de  Script,  in  Melit. 

c  Loc.  supr.  citat.  d  Ap  Eiiscb.  1.  4.  c  26-  p.  147. 

e  Euscb.  Chron.  ;id  Ann,  CLXXI-  f  Euseb.  H.  Eccl.  loc.  supr.  citat. 


THE   LIFE  OF  ST.  MELITO.  :339 

them  be  thought  well  done.  For  a  righteous  prince  wiU 
not  at  any  time  command  what  is  unjust ;  and  we  shall 
not  think  much  to  undergo  the  award  of  such  a  death.... 
This  only  request  we  beg,  that  yourself  would  please 
first  to  examine  the  case  of  these  resolute  persons,  and 
then  impartially  determine,  whether  they  deserve  pun- 
ishment and  death,  or  safety  and  protection.  But  if  this 
new  edict  and  decree,  which  ought  not  to  have  been  pro- 
claimed against  the  most  barbarous  enemies,  did  not 
come  out  with  your  cognizance  and  consent,  we  humbly 
pray,  and  that  with  the  greater  importunity,  that  you 
would  not  suffer  us  to  be  any  longer  exposed  to  this 
public  rapine." 

3.  After  this  he  put  him  in  mind  how  much  the  em^ 
pire  had  prospered  since  the  rise  of  Christianity,  and  that 
none  but  the  worst  of  his  predecessors  had  entertained 
an  implacable  spite  against  the  Christians.  ''  This  new 
sect  of  philosophy  (says  he)  which  we  profess,  hereto- 
fore flourished  among  the  barbarians  (by  which  probably 
he  means  the  Jews.)  Afterwards  under  the  reign  of  Au- 
gustus, your  predecessor,  it  spread  itself  over  the  pro. 
vinces  of  your  empire,  commencing  with  a  happy  omen 
to  it :  since  which  time  the  majesty  and  gi-eatness  of  the 
Roman  empire  hath  mightily  increased,  whereof  you  are 
the  wished-for  heir  and  successor,  and  together  with 
your  son  shall  so  continue,  especially  while  you  pro- 
tect that  religion,  which  began  with  Augustus,  and  grew 
up  together  with  the  empire,  and  for  which  your  prede- 
cessors  had  together  with  other  rites  of  worship,  some 
kind  of  reverence  and  regard.  And  that  our  religion, 
which  was  brcxl  up  with  the  prosperity  of  the  empire, 
was  born  for  public  good,  there  is  this  great  argument 
to  convince  you,  that  since  the  reign  of  Augustus  there 
has  no  considerable  mischief  happened  ;  but  on  the  con- 
trary all  things  according  to  every  one's^desire  have  fallen 
out  glorious  and  successful.  None  but  Nero  and  Do- 
mitian,  instigated  by  cruel  and  ill-minded  men,  have  at- 
tempted to  reproach  and  calumniate  our  religion,; 
whence  sprang  the  common  slanders  concerning  us,  the 
injudicious  vulgar,  greedily   entertaining   such  reports 


340  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  MELITO. 

without  any  strict  examination.  But  your  parents  of  re- 
ligious memory  gave  a  check  to  this  ignorance  and  injus- 
tice,  by  frequent  rescripts  reproving  those  who  made 
any  new  attempts  in  this  matter.  Among  whom  was 
your  grandfather  Adrian,  who  wrote,  as  to  several  others, 
so  to  Fundanus  the  proconsul  of  Asia ;  and  your  father, 
at  what  time  yourself  was  colleague  with  him  in  the  em- 
pire, wrote  to  several  cities  (particularly  to  Larissaea, 
Thcssalonica,  Athens,  and  all  the  cities  of  Greece)  that 
they  should  not  create  any  new  disturbance  about  this 
affair.  And  for  yourself,  who  have  the  same  opinion  of 
us  which  they  had,  and  a  great  deal  better,  more  becoin- 
ing  a  good  man  and  a  philosopher,  we  promise  ourselves 
that  you  will  grant  all  our  petitions  and  requests."  An 
address  managed  with  great  prudence  and  ingenuous 
freedom,  and  which  striking  in  with  other  apologies  pre- 
sented about  the  same  time,  did  not  a  little  contribute  to 
the  general  quiet  and  prosperity  of  Christians. 

4.  Nor  was  he  so  wholly  swallowed  up  with  care  for 
the  general  peace  of  Christians,  as  to  neglect  the  parti- 
cular good  of  his  own,  or  neighbour  churches.  During 
the  government  of  Servilius  Paulus  proconsul  of  Asia, 
Sagaris  bishop  of  Laodicea  had  suftered  martyrdom  in 
the  late  persecution  ;  ^  at  what  time  the  controversy 
about  the  paschal  solemnity  was  hotly  ventilated  in  that 
church,  some,  strangers  probably,  urging  the  observa- 
tion of  the  festival  according  to  the  Roman  usage  cele- 
brating it  upon  the  Lord's  day,  contraiy  to  the  custom 
of  those  churches,  who  had  e^'er  kept  it  upon  the  four- 
teenth day  of  the  moon,  according  to  the  manner  of  the 
Jew^s.  For  the  quieting  of  which  contention  Melito  pre- 
sently WTOte  two  books  -arsgi  TO  nda-xa.  conccmmg  the  pass- 
over  ^  wherein  no  doubt  he  treated  at  large  of  the  cele- 
bration of  Easter  according  to  the  observation  of  the 
Asian  churches,  and  therefore  Polycrates,  in  his  letter  to 
pope  Victor  particularly  reckons  ^  Sagaris  and  Melito, 
among  the  chief  champions  of  the  cause.     This  Paschal 

SIpse  Milet.  ap.  Euseb.  1.  4.  c.  26.  p.  liT 
Ap.Euseb.  l.J.c.  24.  p.  191. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  MEHTO.  341 

book  of  St.  Melito  was  mentioned  also  by  '  Clemens  of 
Alexandria  in  a  tract  concerning  the  same  subject, 
wherein  he  confesses  that  he  was  moved  to  that  under- 
taking by  the  discourse  which  Melito  had  published 
upon  that  subject. 

5.  How  unwearied  is  true  goodness  and  a  love  to 
souls  !  how  willing  to  digest  any  difficulties,  by  which 
another's  happiness  may  be  advanced  !  his  brother  One- 
simus  had  desired  of  him  to  remark  such  passages  of 
the  Old  Testament  as  principally  made  for  the  confir- 
mation of  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  let  him  know 
how  many  of  those  books  were  admitted  into  the  holy 
canon.  Wherein  that  he  might  at  once  thoroughly  sa- 
tisfy both  his  brother  and  himself,  he  took  a  journey  on 
purpose  into  the  East,  that  is,  I  suppose,  to  Jerusalem, 
where  he  was  likeliest  to  receive  full  satisfaction  in  this 
matter,  and  where  having  informed  himself,  he  gave  his 
brother  at  his  return  an  account  of  it.  The  letter  itself, 
because  but  short,  and  containing  so  authentic  an  evi- 
dence what  books  of  the  Old  Testament  were  received 
by  the  ancient  church,  we  shall  here  subjoin. 

Melito  to  his  brother  Onesimus,  greeting. 

FORASMUCH  as  out  of  your  great  love  to  and  de- 
light in  the  holy  scriptures,  you  have  oft  desired  me  to 
collect  such  passages  out  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  as 
relate  to  our  Saviour  and  the  several  parts  of  our  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  to  be  certainly  informed  of  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament,  how  many  in  number,  and  in  what 
order  they  were  written,  I  have  endeavoured  to  comply 
with  your  desires  in  this  affair.  For  I  know  your  great 
zeal  and  care  concerning  the  faith,  and  how  much  you 
desire  to  be  instructed  in  matters  of  religion,  and  espe- 
cially out  of  your  love  to  God  how  infinitely  you  prefer 
these  above  all  other  things,  and  are  solicitous  about 
your  eternal  salvation.  In  order  hereunto  I  travelled 
into  the  East,  and  being  arrived  at  the  place  where  thetie 

j  Ap.  Euseb.  ubl  supr.p.  147. 


342  thp:  life  of  st.  melito. 

things  were  done  and  published,  and  having  accurately 
informed  myself  of  the  books  of  tlie  old  testament,  I 
have  sent  you  the  following  account.  The  five  books 
of  Moses,  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deu- 
teronomy, Jesus  or  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  ;  Judges, 
Ruth  ;  the  four  books  of  Kings.  Two  books  of  Chroni- 
cles. The  Psalms  of  David.  The  Proverbs,  of  Solomon, 
which  is  Wisdom;  Ecclesiastes,  the  Song  of  Songs,  Job. 
The  Prophets,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  the  twelve  [^mino?'^  pro 
phets  in  one  book.  Daniel,  Ezekiel  :  Esdras  or  Ezra, 
Out  of  all  which  I  have  made  collections,  which  I  have 
digested  into  sixbooks. 

6.  In  which  catalogue  we  may  observe  the  book 
of  Esther  is  omitted,  as  it  is  also  by  ""St.  Athanasius, 
'Gregory  Nazianzen,  and  "'Leontius,  in  their  enumera- 
tion of  the  books  of  the  holy  canon:  though  for  what 
reason  is  uncertain,  unless  (as  "Sixtus  Senensis,  not  im- 
probably conjectures)  because  it  was  not  in  those  times 
looked  upon  as  of  such  unquestionable  credit  and  au- 
thority as  the  rest ;  the  spurious  additions  at  the  end  of 
it  causing  the  whole  book  to  be  called  in  question.  Nor 
is  here  any  particular  mention  made  of  Nehemiah,  pro- 
bably because  it  was  ancientl}^  comprehended  under  that 
of  Esdras.  And  by  that  of  Wisdom  we  see  is  not  meant 
the  apocryphal  book,  axWcd  the  fFisdom  of  Solojjion  (as 
Bellarmine  "and  most  writers  of  that  church  confidently 
enough  assert)  but  his  proverbs,  of  which  I'Eusebius  ex- 
pressly tells  us,  that  not  only  Hegesippus  but  Irenaeus. 
and  all  the  ancients  were  wont  to  call  the  Proverbs  of  So- 
lomon by  the  name  of  wisdom,  TdVi^ih,  (;o<pi«y,  a  wisdom 
containing  a  system  of  ail  kind  of  virtues.  And  indeed 
that  Melito  in  this  place  could  mean  no  other,  the  words 
of  his  letter  as  restored  by  Valesius(-^'>^'^/"«'©'  ^*§!(//»:«, « 4  ^c^'a) 
according  to  Nicephorus's  quotation,  and  the  faith  of 
all  the  best  and  most  ancient  manuscrips,  puts  the  case 
beyond  all  peradventure. 

7.  At  last  this  good  man,  broken  with  infinite  pains 
and  labours,  and  wearied  with  the  inquietudes  of  a  trou- 

k  Synops.  5.  Script,  p  471 .  1  Carm.  XXXIII  p.  98.  Tom.  2.  m  Si-ct. 
Act.  II.  p.  408.  n  Biblioth.  S.  1. 1.  p.  5.  o  De  Script.  Eccl-  in  Melit.  ad 
Ann.  150.         p  Lib.  4.  c.  iJ.  p.  1  ij. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  MELITO.  343 

blesome  world,  retreated  to  the  place  of  rest.  The  time 
and  manner  of  his  death  is  unknown  ;  this  only  we  find 
■'that  he  died,  and  lies  buried  at  Sardis,  waiting  T«vaVi  tsu 
!i'{*y«v  iT4(r)to7r;)v  the  episcopal  visitatiou  from  heaven,  when  our 
Lord  shall  come  and  raise  him  up  from  the  dead.  He 
was  a  man,  besides  the  piety  of  his  mind,  and  the  strict- 
ness and  innocencyof  his  life,  of  great  parts  and  learn- 
ing, he  had  elegans  et  declamatorium  ingeniiun^  as  ''Ter- 
tuUian  said  of  him,  a  smart  elegant  wit,  able  to  represent 
things  with  their  most  proper  aggravations.  He  WTote 
books  almost  in  all  kinds  of  subjects,  divine,  moral,  and 
philosophical,  the  monuments  of  no  Less  industry  than 
learning,  which  are  all  long  since  lost,  some  very  i^w 
fragments  only  excepted.  I  know  there  are  that  sus- 
pected him  to  have  had  notions  less  orthodox  about 
some  of  the  great  principles  of  religion  :  which  I  confess 
seems  to  me  a  most  uncharitable  and  unjust  reflection  upon 
so  holy  and  so  good  a  man,  especially  seeing  the  conjec- 
ture is  founded  upon  the  mere  titles  of  some  of  his  books, 
none  of  the  books  themselves  being  extant,  and  of  those 
titles  a  fair  account  might  be  given  to  satisfy  any  sober 
and  impartial  man ;  there  being  but  two  that  can  be 
liable  to  exception,  the  one  nsgi  jv!ra.//*T«  gsS,  de  Deo,  not 
Corpore,  (however  ''J'heodoret,  and  as  it  seems  from  ori- 
gen,  understands  it)  but  Corporato)  as  Tertullian  would 
express  it)  de  Deo  corpere  indiito,  as  Rufinus  of  old  trans- 
lated it,  concerning  God  clothed  with  a  body,  or  the 
word  made  jlesh ;  the  other  ns§i  ;c7«Vsdc  (most  copies  read 
T/s-.ac)  4  >svi<rEa.c  x§;s-j,  of  tlic  crcatiou  and  generation  of  Christ. 
Where  admit  it  to  have  been  x7(Vs£>'f,  creation,  he  alluded  I 
doubt  not  to  that  of  Solomon,  the  Lord  possessed,  kv«, 
created  me  in  the  beginning  of  his  way.  And  evident  it 
is,  that  before  the  rise  of  the  Arian  controversies  the 
fathers^  used  the  wordfor  any  manner  of  production,  and 

q  Polycrat.  Ep.  ap  Euseb.  ubi  p.  191.      r  Apud  Hieron.  de  Script,  in  Melit. 

S  'nvsTT/  «,  Mixiraiy  (rrjyyorly.fA-ria.  KeLTt\iKit7ru!<;,  ^i^t  n^  jv7^ua7(3v  uyttv  tov  Qiiv. 
Theod.  Qiiest.  XX.  in  Genes.  Tom.  1.  pag.  21. 

t  nsj/  xvrS  ['l^fo-i  Xg/7!(]  *j  0  2oA<!,u(»v  tnuiv  m  Ik.  .-sr^io-aiTrii  at/re"  xvpt(^  iKltrk 
fit  a.fx>^y:> feel  iu-n  iU  i^yrt  Constit.  Apost.  1.  5.  c.  19.  col.  370.  Csterum  ne 
tunc quidem  solus;  habebat  enim  secum,  quern  habtbat  in  semetipso,  ratio, 
nem  snam  scilicet  :  hanc  Grxci  ;.ij^;»  dicunt.— Itaque  Sophiam  quoq  ;  exaudi, 


344 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  MELITO. 


usually  understand  that  place  of  Solomon  of  the  ineffable 


generation  of  the  Son  of  God. 


HIS    WRITINGS. 


None  whereof  are  now  extant. 


De  Paschate,  Libri  II. 

De  recta  vivendi  ratione,&  de 

Prophetis,  liber  unus. 
De  Ecclesia. 
De  die  Dominica. 
De  Natura  Hominis. 
De  Creatione. 

De  obedientia  sensuum  fidei. 
De  Anima,  &  corpore,  &  mente. 
De  Lavacro. 
De  Veritate. 


De  fide  [Creatione]  &  Genera- 

tione  Christi. 
De  Prophetia. 
De  Hospitalitate. 
Liber  Claris  dictus. 
De  Diabolo. 
De  Joannis  Apocalypsi. 
De  Incarnatione  Dei. 
Apologia  ad  Imp.  Anton inum. 
Exerptorum  ex  libris    Veteris 

Testamenti,  Libri  VI. 


tit  secundam  personam  conditam.  Primo,  Dominus  creavit  me  initum  viarum 
in  opera  sua,  &c.  nam  ut  primum  Deus  voluit  ea  quae  cum  Sophi^e  ratione  & 
sermone  disposuerat  intra  se,  ipsum  primum  protulit  sermonem. — Hjec  est  na- 
tiiitas  perfecta  sermonis,  dum  ex  dec  procedit :  conditus  abeo  primum  ad  co- 
sfitatum  in  nomine  Sophix,  Dominus  condidit  m^  initiam  viarum.  Tertul  adv- 
Prax.  c.  5,  5j  7.  p.  503.  ubi  pli»ra. 


♦ 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.    PANTiENUS 

CATECHIST  OF  ALEXANDRIA. 


The  various  conjectures  concerning  his  origin.  Tlie  probabilities  of  his 
Jewish  descent,  what.  Whether  born  in  Sicily  or  at  Alexandria.  His 
first  institution.  The  famous  Platonic  schofjl  erected  by  Ammonius  at 
Alexandria.  The  renown  of  that  place  for  other  parts  of  learning.  Pan- 
t^enus  addicted  to  a  sect  of  the  Stoics.  The  principles  of  that  sect  show- 
ed to  agree  best  with  the  dictates  of  Christianity.  His  great  improve- 
ments in  the  Christian  doctrine.  The  catechetic  school  at  Alexan- 
dria, with  its  antiquity.  Pant!enus  made  regent  of  it.  When  he  first 
entered  upon  this  office.  An  embassy  from  India  to  the  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria for  some  to  preach  the  Christian  faith.  Pantaenus  sent  upon 
this  errand.  This  country  where  situate.  His  arrival  in  India,  and 
converse  with  the  Brachmans.  Their  temper,  principles,  and  way  of 
life.  Their  agreement  with  the  Stoics.  Foot  steps  of  Christianity 
formerly  planted  there.  St.  Matthew's  Hebrew  gospel  found  among 
them  and  brought  by  Pantxnus  to  Alexandria.  How  far  and  by  whom 
Christianity  was  propagated  in  India  afterwards.  Pantxnus's  return 
to  Alexandria,  and  resuming  his  catechetic  office.  His  death.  His 
great  piety  and  learning. 

1.  THE  silence  of  antiquity  as  to  the  country  and 
kindred  of  this  excellent  person  has  administered  to  va- 
riety of  conjectures  concerning  his  origin.  Some  con- 
ceive him  to  have  been  born  of  Jewish  parents,  and  they 
of  note  and  quality,  for  ^  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  reck- 
oning up  his  tutors,  tells  us  that  one  (whom  he  names 
last)  was  of  Palestine,  an  Hebrew  of  very  long  descent; 
and  then  adds,  that  having  found  the  last  (meaning,  say 
some,  the  last  of  those  whom  he  had  reckoned  up)  though 

a  Stromat.  1. 1.  p.  274. 
X     X 


346  THE  LIFE  OF  ST»  PANT^NUS. 

hejustly  deserved  to  be  placed  first,  after  which  he  had 
with  infinite  diligence  and  curiosity  hunted  him  out  in 
Egypt,  where  he  lay  obscure,  he  sat  down  under  his 
discipline  and  institution.  This  person •"  Eusebius  plain- 
ly supposes  to  have  been  our  Panteenus  ;  and  that  he  in- 
tended him  in  the  latter  clause  there  is  no  cause  to  doubt, 
the  fiDrmer  only  is  ambiguous,  it  not  being  clear,  whe- 
ther the  latter  sentence  be  necessaril}'-  connected  and 
joined  to  the  former,  or  that  he  designed  any  more,  than 
to  intimate  the  last  master  he  addressed  to,  as  distinct 
from  those  he  had  named  before.  And  this  I  am  the  ra- 
ther inclined  to  think,  because  whoever  considerately 
weighs  Clemens's  period,  will  find  that  by  his  Hebrew  or 
Palestine  master,  he  means  one  of  the  two  whom  he 
heard  in  the  east,  whereas  Pantasnus  was  his  master  in 
Egypt,  whom  he  both  found  and  heard  there.  '^  Others 
make  him  born  in  Sicily,  because  Clemens  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  styles  him,  a  truly  Sicilian  bee :  but  whe- 
ther there  may  not  be  something  proverbial  in  that  ex- 
pression even  as  it  relates  to  Sicily,  I  shall  not  now  in- 
quire. HoAvever  it  is  certain  that  the  inhabitants  of  that 
island  WTre  generally  Greeks,  that  many  eminent  philo- 
sophers were  born,  or  resided  there,  and  particularly  the 
fcunous  Porphyry,  who  had  retired  hither  for  some  years, 
and  here  wrote  his  virulent  books  against  the  Chris- 
tians. Let  this  then  stand  for  his  country,  till  something 
more  probable  offer  itself,  unless  we  will  say,  that  being 
descended  of  Sicilian  ancestors,  he  was  born  at  Alexan- 
dria, the  place  of  his  education. 

2.  His  younger  years  were  seasoned  with  all  learned 
and  philosophical  studies,  under  the  best  masters  which 
Alexandria  (for  there  I  presume  to  place  his  education) 
afforded,  at  that  time  a  noted  staple  place  of  learning. 
As  Egypt  had  in  all  ages  been  famous  for  the  choicest 
parts  of  literature,  and  the  more  uncommon  speculations 
of  theology,  so  more  especially  Alexandria,  w^here  there 


b  H.  Eccl.  1.5.  c.  11.  p.  \75, 176.    c^^'ales.  Annot.  in  Euseb.  p.  96. 


THE  LIEE  OF  ST.  PANT^NUS.  347 

were  professors  in  all  arts  and  sciences,  and  public  schools 
of  institution,  not  a  little  advantaged  by  that  noble  libra- 
r}-,  placed  here  by  Ptolomy  Philadelphus,  and  so  much 
celebrated  by  the  ancients.  In  after-times  here  was  a 
fixed  and  settled  succession  of  philosophers  in  the  Plato- 
nic school,  begun  by  Ammonius  Saccas  and  carried  on 
by  Photinus  and  Origen,  and  their  successors  for  several 
ages.  ^  Ammianus  Marcellinus  tells  us  that  in  his  time, 
though  not  so  famous  as  formerly,  yet  in  some  good  de- 
gree it  still  maintained  its  reputation,  and  that  all  ingenu- 
ous arts  and  methods  of  recondite  learning,  and  celebra- 
ted professors  of  all  sorts  flourished  here,  and  that  it  was 
enough  to  recommend  a  physician  to  public  notice,  if  he 
had  studied  at  Alexandria,  Nay,  many  ages  after  him, 
Benjamin  the  Jew "  at  his  being  there,  found  near  twent}' 
several  schools  of  Aristotelians  (the  only  men  that  then 
ruled  the  chair)  whither  men  flocked  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  to  learn  the  Peripatetic  philosophy. 

3.  Among  all  the  sects  of  philosophy  he  principally 
applied  himself  ^  to  the  Stoics,  with  whose  notions  and 
rules  of  life  he  was  most  enamoured  ;  and  no  wonder, 
seeing  (as  St.  Hierom  ^  observes)  their  dogmata  in  many 
things  come  nearest  to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  As 
indeed  they  do,  especially  as  to  the  moral  and  practical 
part  of  their  principles.  They  held  that  nothing  was 
good  but  what  was  just  and  pious,  nothing  evil  but  what 
was  vicious  and  dishonest :  that  a  bad  man  could  never 
be  happy,  nor  a  good  man  miserable,  who  was  always 
free,  generous,  and  dear  to  heaven  ;  that  the  deity  was 
perpetually  concerned  for  human  affairs,  and  that  there 
was  a  wise  and  powerful  providence  that  particularly  su- 
perintended the  happiness  of  mankind,  and  was  ready  to 
assist  men  in  all  lawful  and  virtuous  undertakings  ;  that 
therefore  this  God  was  above  all  things  to  be  admired, 
adored,  and  worshipped,  prayed  to,  acknowledged,  obey- 
ed, praised,  and  that  it  is  the  most  comely  and  reasona- 
ble thing  in  the  world,  that  we    should  universally  sub- 


d  Lib.  22.  non  longe  a  Sii.  p.  1638.     e  Iliner  p.  121.      f  Easeb, !  j.  c.  10,  p 
'75.    g  Com.  in  Esa.  c.  11.  p.  49.  Tom.  5. 


348  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PANTiENUS. 

mit  to  his    will,     Q.UQcia-'artiC.Aa-d-eUi^ahiitrf-^ux^craiQvfx.Ctiwv'rilvaivr^ 

cheerfully  embrace  with  all  our  souls  all  the  issues 
and  determinations  of  his  providence  ;  that  we  ought  not 
to  think  it  enough  to  be  happy  alone,  but  that  it  is  our 
duty  aVo  KapSUc  <piMh.  to  love  men  from  the  very  heart,  to 
relieve  and  help  them,  advise  and  assist  them,  and 
contribute  what  is  in  our  power  to  their  welfare  and  safe- 
ty, and  this  not  once  or  twice,  but  throughout  the  whole 
life,  and  that  unbiasedly,  without  any  little  designs  of  ap- 
plause, or  advantage  to  ourselves  ;  that  nothing  should 
be  equally  dear  to  a  man  as  honesty  and  virtue,  and  that 
this  is  the  first  thing  he  should  look  at,  whether  the  thing 
he  is  going  about  be  good  or  bad,  and  the  part  of  a  good 
or  wicked  man,  and  if  excellent  and  virtuous,  that  he 
ought  not  to  let  any  loss  or  damage,  torment,  or  death  it- 
self deter  him  from  it.  And  whoever  runs  over  the  wri- 
tings of  Seneca,  Antoninus,  Epictetus,  Arrian,  &c.  will 
find  these,  and  a  great  many  more,  claiming  a  very  near 
kindred  with  the  main  rules  of  life  prescribed  in  the 
Christian  faith.  And  what  wonder  if  Pant^nus  was  in 
love  with  such  generous  and  manly  principles,  which  he 
liked  so  well,  that  as  he  always  retained  the  title  of  the 
Stoic  philosopher,  so  for  the  main  he  owned  the  profes- 
sion of  that  sect,  even  after  his  being  admitted  to  emi- 
nent offices  and  employments  in  the  Christian  Church. 

4.  By  whom  he  was  instructed  in  the  principles  of  the 
Christain  religion,  I  find  not ;  ''  Photius  tells  us  that  he 
was  scholar  to  those  who  had  seen  the  apostles,  though. 
I  cannot  allow  of  what  he  adds,  that  he  had  been  an  audi- 
tor of  some  of  the  apostles  themselves,  his  great  distance 
from  their  times  rendering  it  next  door  to  impossible. 
But  whoever  were  his  tutors,  he  made  such  vast  profici- 
encies in  his  learning,  that  his  singular  eminency  quickly 
recommended  him  to  a  place  of  great  trust  and  honour  in 
the  church, to  be  master  of  the  catechetic  school  at  Alex- 
andria. For  there  were  not  only  academies  and  schools 
of  human  literature,  but  an  ecclesiastical  school  for  the 
training  persons  up  in  divine  knowledge  and  the  first 

hCod.  CJCVIII,  col.  29r. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PANTiENUS.  349 

principles  of  Christianity  :  and  this  «|  a§;t*/»  sSk?,  says  '  Eu- 
sebius,  of  very  ancient  custom,  from  the  very  times  of  St. 
Mark  (says  "^  St.  Hierom)  the  first  planter  of  Christiani- 
ty and  bishop  of  that  place.  From  whose  time  there  had 
been  a  constant  succession  of  catechists  in  that  school, 
which  Eusebius  tells  us,  continued  in  his  time,  and  was 
managed  by  men  famous  for  eloquence  and  the  study  of 
divine  things.  The  fame  and  glory  of  Pantasnus  did  a- 
bove  all  others  at  that  time  design  him  for  this  place,  in 
which  he  accordingly  succeeded,  and  that  (as  '  Eusebius 
intimates)  about  the  beginning  of  Commodus's  reign, 
when  Julian  entered  upon  the  see  of  Alexandria,  fora- 
bout  that  time  (says  he)  he  became  governour  of  the 
school  of  the  faithful  there.  And  whereas  others  before 
him  had  discharged  the  place  in  a  more  private  way,  he 
made  the  school  more  open  and  public,  freely  teaching  all 
that  addressed  themselves  to  him.  In  this  employment  he 
continued  without  intermission  the  whole  time  of  Julian 
(who  sat  ten  years)  till  under  his  successor  he  was  des- 
patched upon  a  long  and  dangerous  journey^  whereof 
this  the  occasion. 

5.  Alexandria  was  7roxiy:(v9-^«^(!TaT«  ■xitcrAv  7ro>.i(  (as  the  orator 
^  styles  it)  one  of  the  most  populous  and  frequented  ci- 
ties in  the  world,  whither  there  w-as  a  constant  resort  not 
only  of  neighbour  nations  but  of  the  most  remote  and 
distant  countries,  Ethiopians,  Arabians,  Bactrians,  Scy- 
thians, Persians,  and  even  Indians  themselves.  It  hap- 
pened that  some  Indian  ambassadors  (whether  sent  for 
this  particular  purpose  is  not  certain)  entreated  "  Deme- 
trius,then  bishop  of  Alexandria,to  send  some  worthy  and 
excellent  person  along  wath  them  to  preach  the  faith  in 
those  countries.  None  appeared  qualified  for  this  errand 
like  Pantenus,  a  grave  man,  a  great  philosopher,  incom- 
parably furnished  \vith  both  divine  and  secular  learning. 
Him  Demetrius  persuades  to  undertake  the  embassy  ; 
and  though  he  could  not  but  be  sufficiently  apprehensive 
that  he  quitted  a  pleasant  and  delightful  country,  a  place 

i  Lac.  supr  citat.  k  De  script,  in  Pantaen.         1  C;ip.  9,  &.  10.  ut  siipr. 

m  Dion.  Clirvsto-i.  Orat.  XXXlI.  p.  3T5.  vid.  p.  375. 
n  Hieron.  de  Script,  ubi.  suj)r. 


S50  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PANT.ENUS. 

where  he  was  beloved  and  honoured  by  all  with  a  just  es- 
teem and  reverence,  and  that  he  ventured  upon  a  journey 
where  he  must  expect  to  encounter  with  dangers  and 
hardships,  and  the  greatest  difficulties  and  oppositions, 
yet  were  all  these  easily  conquered  by  his  insatiable  desire 
to  propagate  the  Christian  religion,  even  to  the  remotest 
corners  of  the  world.  For  there  were  many  evangelical 
preachers  even  at  that  time  (as  "  Eusebius  adds  upon  this 
occasion)  Avho  inflamed  with  a  divine  and  holy  zeal,  in 
imitation  of  tlie  apostles  were  willing  to  travel  up  and 
down  the  world  for  enlarging  the  bounds  of  Christianity, 
and  building  men  up  on  the  most  holy  faith.  What  In- 
dia this  was  to  which  Pantcenus,  and  after  him  Frumen- 
tius  (for  that  they  both  went  to  the  same  country,  is 
highly  probable)  was  despatched,  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine. There  are,  and  they  men  of  no  inconsiderable  note, 
that  conceive  it  was  not  the  Oriental,  but  African  India, 
conterminous  to  -/Ethiopia,  or  rather  a  part  of  it.  These 
Indians  were  a  colony  and  plantation  derived  at  first  out 
of  the  east.  For  so  ^  Eusebius  tells  us,  that  in  the  more 
early  ages  the  ^Ethiopians  quitting  the  parts  about  the 
river  Indus,  sat  down  near  Egypt.  Whence  ''  Philostra- 
tus  expressly  styles  the  iEthioj>ians,  a  colony  of  Indians, 
as  '■  elsewhere  he  calls  them  ykvCir  'uSikIv,  an  Indian  genera- 
tion. The  metropolis  of  this  country  was  Axumis,  of 
which  Frumentius  is  afterwards  said  to  be  ordained  bi- 
shop by  Athanasius.  An  opinion,  which  I  confess  my- 
self very  inclinable  to  embrace,  and  should  without  any 
scruple  comply  with,  did  not  '  Eusebius  expressly  say, 
that  Pantgenus  preached  the  gospel  to  the  eastern  nations, 
and  came  as  far  as  to  India  itself.  A  passsage,  which 
how  it  can  suit  with  the  African  India,  and  the  countries 
that  lie  so  directly  south  of  Egypt,  I  am  not  able  to  ima- 
gine. For  which  reason  we  have  elsewhere  fixed  it  in 
the  east.  Nor  is  there  any  need  to  send  them  as  far  as 
I?idia  intra  Gangem,  there  are  places  in  Asia  nearer  hand, 
and  particularly  some  parts  of  Arabia  that  anciently  pas- 

o  Loc.citat.         p  Chron.  ad  An.  Abi-ah.  CCCCIV.         q  Vit.  Appollon.  !. 
6.  c.  8.  p.  287.       r  Ibid.  I.  o.c.  6.  p.  125.     s  Hist.  Reel,  iibi  supr. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PANTiENUS.  351 

sccl  under  that  name,  whence  the  Persian  gulf  is  some- 
times  called  the  Indian  sea.  But  let  the  judicious  rea- 
der determine  as  he  please  in  this  matter. 

6.  Being  arrived  in  India,  he  set  himself  to  plant  the 
Christian  faith  in  those  parts,  especially  conversing  with 
the  'Brachmans,  the  sages  and  philosophers  of  those 
countries,  whose  principles  and  way  of  life  seemed 
more  immediately  to  dispose  them  for  the  entertainment 
of  Christianity.  Their  children  as  soon  as  born  they 
committed  to  nurses,  and  then  to  guardians  according  to 
their  different  ages,  who  instructed  them  in  principles  ac- 
cording to  their  capacities  and  improvements  :  they  were 
educated  with  all  imaginable  severity  of  discipline,  not 
suffered  so  much  as  to  speak  or  spit,  or  cough,  while 
their  masters  were  discoursing  to  them,  and  this  till  they 
were  seven  and  thirty  years  of  age."  They  were  infi- 
nitely strict  and  abstemious  in  their  diet,  eat  no  flesh, 
drank  no  wine  or  strong  drink,  feeding  only  upon  wild 
acorns,  and  such  roots  as  nature  furnish  them  withal, 
and  quenching  their  thirst  at  the  next  spring  or  river,  and, 
abstaining  from  all  other  lawful  pleasures  and  delights. 
They  adored  no  images,  but  sincerely  worshipped  God, 
to  whom  they  continually  prayed,  and  instead  of  the 
custom  of  those  eastern  nations  of  turning  to  the  east, 
they  devoutly  lift  up  their  eyes  to  heaven,  and  while  they 
drew  near  to  God,  took  a  peculiar  care  to  keep  them- 
selves from  being  defiled  with  any  vice  or  wickedness, 
spending  a  great  part  both  of  night  and  day  in  hymns 
and  prayers  to  God.  They  accounted  themselves  the 
most  free  and  victorious  people,  having  hardened  their 
bodies  against  all  external  accidents,  and  subdued  in 
their  minds  all  irregular  passions  and  desires.  Gold 
and  silver  they  despised,  as  that  which  could  neither 
quench  their  thirst  nor  allay  their  hunger,  nor  heal  their 

t  Hieron.Epist.  ad  Magn.  Orat.  p.  527.  Tom.  2. 

u  De  Brachman.  morib.  &,  instlt.  vid.  inter  alios  Alexand.  Polvli,  de  reb.  In- 
die.  ap.  Clem.  Alex.  Stromal.  1.  3.  p.  451.  Strab.  Gsogr.  1.  15.  p.  712.  Barde- 
san.  Syr.  1.  de  fat.  ap.  Euseb.  Prxp,  Evang'.  1.  6.  c.  10.  p.  275.  Plutarch  de  vit. 
Alexand.  p.  701.  Porphyr.  n^.  dTrcyJf,  1.4.  $17,  18.  p.  167.  &c.  Pall  ad.  de 
Bragman.  p.  P>,  9,  15,  16, 17.  Tract,  de  Orig'.  &  Morib'.  Bi-achman.  inter  Am- 
brosii  oper.  ad  Gale. Tom  5.  Suid  in  voc.  Boav  uavs-,  p.  578. 


352  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PANT.ENUS. 

wounds,  nor  cure  their  distempers,  nor  serve  any  real 
and  necessary  ends  of  nature,  but  only  minister  to  vice 
and  luxury,  to  trouble  and  inquietude,  and  set  the  mind 
upon  racks  and  tenters.  They  looked  upon  none  of  the 
little  accidents  of  this  world  to  be  either  good  or  evil, 
frequentl}^  discoursed  concerning  death,  which  they 
maintained  to  be  ^nsr^sicTovovTac/g/cy,  a  being  born  into  a 
real  and  happy  life,  and  in  order  whereunto  they  made 
use  of  the  present  time  only  as  a  state  of  preparation 
for  a  better  life.  In  short,  they  seemed  in  most  things 
to  conspire  and  agree  with  the  stoics,  whom  therefore  of 
all  other  sects  they  esteemed  to  be  ?.=>/«?  •I'/xoo-ocpKc,  ^'the 
most  excellent  philosophers ;  and  upon  that  account 
could  not  but  be  somewhat  the  more  acceptable  to  Pan- 
toenus,  who  had  so  thoroughly  imbibed  all  the  wise  and 
rational  principles  of  that  institution. 

7.  What  success  he  had  in  these  parts,  we  are  not  par- 
ticularly told.  Certainly  his  preaching  could  not  want 
some  considerable  effect,  especially  where  persons  were 
by  the  rules  of  their  order,  and  the  course  of  their  life  so 
well  qualified  to  receive  it,  and  that  too  where  christinity 
had  been  heretofore  planted,  though  now  overgrown  with 
weeds  and  rubbish  for  want  of  due  care  and  culture.  For 
he  met  with  several"''  that  retained  the  knowledge  of 
Christ,  preached  here  long  since  by  St.  Bartholomew 
the  apostle  (as  we  have  elsewhere  showed  in  his  life) 
v/hereof  not  the  least  evidence  was  his  finding  St.  Mat- 
thew's gospel  written  in  Hebrew,  which  St.  Bartholo- 
mew had  left  at  his  being  there,  and  which  Pantaenus 
(as  St.  Hierom  informs  us,  though  I  question  whether  it 
be  any  more  than  his  own  conjecture)  brought  back 
with  him  to  Alexandria,  and  there  no  doubt  laid  it  up 
as  an  inestimable  treasure.  And  as  our  philosopher 
succeeded  in  the  labours  of  St.  Bartholomew  in  these 
Indian  plantations,  so  another  afterwards  succeeded  in 
his,  an  account  whereof,  to  make  the  story  more  entire, 
the  reader  I  presume,  will  not  think  it  impertinent,  if  I 

V  Pallad.  de  Brachman.  p.  52.        w  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.   10.  p.  175.   Hier.de 
Script,  in  Pantaen, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  PANT.£NUS.  353 

here  insert,     "^-ii^dcsius  and  Frumentius,  two  youths  of 
Tyre,  accompanied  Meropius  the  philosopher  into   In- 
dia, where  being  taken  by  the   natives,   they    were  pre- 
sented to  the  king  of  the  country,  who  pleased  with  their 
persons  and  their  parts,  made    one  of  them  his    butler, 
the  other  (Frumentius)  the  keeper  of  his  records,  or  as 
Sozomcn  will  have    it,   his  treasurer   and   major-domo, 
committing  to  his   care   the  goverment  of  his  house. 
For  their  great  diligence  and  fidelity  the  king  at  his  death 
gave  them    their  liberty,    who  thereupon  determined  to 
return  to  their  own  country,   but  were  prevailed  with  by 
the   queen  to   stay,    and    superintend  affairs  during  the 
minority  of  her  son.      Which  they  did,  the  main  of  thp 
government  being  in  the  hands  of  Frumentius,  who,  as- 
sisted by  some  Christian  merchants  that  trafficked  there, 
built  an  oratory,  where  they  assembled  to   worship  God 
Q,ccording  to  the  rites  of  Christianity,  and  instructed  se- 
veral of  the  natives,  who  joined  themselves  to  their  aS' 
sembly.      The  young  king,  now  of  age,  Frumentius  re- 
signed  his  trust,  and  begged  leave  to  return  ;    which  be- 
ing with  some  difficulty  obtained,  they  presently  depart- 
ed, iEdesius  going  for  Tyre,  while  Frumentius  went  to 
Alexandria,  where  he  gave  Athanasius,  then   bishop  of 
that  place,  an  account  of  the  whole  affair,  showing  him 
what  hopes  there  were  that  the  Indians  would  come  over 
to  the  faith  of  Christ,  withal  begging  of  him,  to   send  a 
bishop  and  some  clergymen  among  them,  and  not  to  ne« 
gleet  so  fair  an  opportunity  of  advancing  their  salvation. 
Athanasius,  having  advised  with  his  clergy,  persuaded 
Frumentius  to  accept  the  office,  assuring  him   he  had 
none  fitter  for  it  than  himself.     Which  was  done  accord* 
ingly,    and   Frumentius  being    made   bishop,  returned 
back  into  India,  where  he  preached  the  Christian  faith, 
erected    many    churches,    and  being    assisted   by  the 
divine  grace   and    favour,    healed    both  the  souls  and 
bodies   of  many    at  the   same    time.      An   account  of 
all  which  Rufinus  professes  to  have  received  from  JEde- 

X  Socrat.  H.   Eccl.  1.   1,  c.   19.  p.  50.  Sozom,  lib.  2.  c.  24.  p.  4,77.  Theod. 
HEccl.  I.  I.e.  23.  p.54. 


354  THE  LII  i^  OF  ST.  PANT.ENUS. 

sius's  own  mouth,  then  presbyter  of  the  church  of  Tyre. 
But  it  is  time  to  look  back  to  Pantaenus. 

8.  Being  returned  to  Alexandria,  he  resumed  his  ca- 
techetic  office,  which  I  gather  partly  from  ^  Eusebius, 
who  again  mentions  it  just  after  his  Indian  expedition, 
and  adds  TtxiuxSv  »yurit,  that  after  all,  or  when  he  drew  near 
to  his  latter  end,  he  governed  the  school  of  Alexandria  ; 
partly  from  St.  Hierom^,  who  says  expressly,  that  he 
taught  in  the  reigns  of  Severus  and  Caracalla,  his  first 
regency  being  under  Commodus.  He  died  in  the  time 
of  Antoninus  Caracalla,  who  began  his  reign^/w.  CCXL 
though  the  exact  date  and  manner  of  his  death  be  lost ; 
his  memory  is  preserved  in  the  Roman  calendar  on  the 
seventh  of  July.  And  certainly  a  just  tribute  of  honour 
is  due  to  his  memory  for  his  admirable  zeal  and  piety, 
liis  indefatigable  pains  and  industry,  his  exquisite  abili- 
ties, Til  aVi  v^iia;  dn^irra-.^ir^tiiS^,  ixs  Euscbius  truly  characters 
him,  a  man  singularly  eminent  in  all  kinds  of  learning ; 
and  *  Origen,  who  lived  nearer  to  him,  and  was  one  of 
his  successors,  commends  him  for  his  great  usefulness 
and  ability  both  in  philosophical  speculations,  and  theo- 
logical studies,  in  the  one  able  to  deal  with  philosophers, 
in  the  other  to  refute  heretics  and  seducers.  In  his 
school  he  displayed  (as  Eusebius  tells  us)  both  by  word 
and  writing  the  treasures  of  the  sacred  doctrines  ;  though 
he  taught  (says  St.  Hierom)  rather  viva  voce,  than  by 
books,  who  mentions  only  his  commentaries  upon  the 
holy  scripture,  and  of  them  not  the  least  fragment  is  re- 
maining at  this  day. 

yUbi  supra.  ?,  Loc.citat.  a  ApudEuseb.  1.6.  c.  19.  p.  221 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS, 

BISHOP  OF  ALEXANDRIA. 

His  country.  The  progress  of  his  studies.  His  instruction  in  the  Chrs- 
tian  doctrine.  His  several  masters.  His  impartial  inquiry  after  truth. 
The  elective  sect,  what.  Its  excellent  genius.  Clemens  of  this  sect. 
His  succeeding  Panta:nus  in  the  Catechctic  school.  He  is  made  pres- 
i)Vtcr  of  Alexandria.  His  Stromata  published,  when.  Lawfulness  of 
flying  in  time  (if  persecution.  His  journey  into  the  East.  What  tracts 
he  wrote  there.  His  going  from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  and  return  to 
Alexandria.  His  death.  'l"he  elogia  given  of  him  by  the  ancients.  His 
admirable  learning.  His  writings.  His  hypotyposes  :  Photius  his 
account  of  them  ;  corrupted  by  the  Arians.  His  books  yet  extant,  and 
the  orderly  gradation  of  them.  His  Stromata,  what  the  design  of  it. 
His  style,  what  in  this,  what  in  his  other  books.  A  short  apology  for 
some  unwary  assertions  in  his  writings.     His  writings  enumerated, 

1.  TITUS  Flavius  Clemens  was,  probably,  born  at 
Athens.  For  when  ^  Epiphanius  tells  us,  that  some  af- 
lirined  him  to  be  an  Alexandrian,  others  an  Athenian, 
he  might  well  be  both  ;  the  one  being  the  place  of  his 
nativity,  as  the  other  was  of  his  constant  residence  and 
employment.  Nor  can  I  imagine  any  other  account, 
upon  which  the  title  of  Athenian  should  be  given  to  him. 
And  the  conjecture  is  further  countenanced  from  the 
course  and  progress  of  his  studies,  the  foundations 
whereof  were  laid  in  Greece,  improved  in  the  East,  and 
perfected  in  JLgypt.  And  indeed  his  incomparable  abi- 
lities in  all  parts  of  science  render  it  a  little  more  pro- 
bable, that  his  early  years  commenced  in  that  great 
school  of  arts  and  learning.  But  he  staid  not  here,  his 
insatiable  thirst  after  knowledge  made  him  traverse  al- 

a  Hxres.  XXXU.  p.  96. 


356  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

most  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  converse  with  the  learned 
of  all  nations,  that  he  might  furnish   himself  with  the 
knowledge  of  Avhatever  was  useful  and  excellent,  especi- 
ally a  thorough  acquaintance   with  the  mysteries  of  the 
Christian  doctrine.     He  tells  us  ^  of  those  lively  and  pow- 
erful discourses,   which  he  had  the   happiness  to  hear 
from  blessed  and  truly  worthy  and  memorable  persons, 
who   preserving   that   sincere   and    excellent   doctrine, 
which  like  children  from  the  hands  of  their  parents,  they 
had  immediately  received  from  Peter,  James,  John,  and 
Paul,  the  holy  apostles,  whereby  God's  blessing  came 
down  to  his  time,  sowing  those  ancient  and  apostolic 
seeds  of  truth.     A  passage,  which  I  doubt  not "  Eusebius 
intended,  when  he  says,  that  Clemens,  speaking  concern- 
ing himself  in  the  first  book  of  his  Stromata,  affirms  him- 
self to  have  been  of  the  next  succession  to  the  apostles. 
2.  Of  these  venerable  men  to  whose  tuition  he  com- 
mitted himelf,  he  himself  has  given  ^  us  some,  though 
but  obscure  account.     The   fust  was  lonicus,  a  Caelo- 
Syrian,  whom  he  heaixl  in  Greece,  and  whom  ^'Baronius 
conjectures  to  have  been  Caius,  or  Dionysius,  bishop  of 
Corinth;  a  second  an  Egyptian,  under  whose  discipline 
he  was,  in  that  part  of  Italy  called  Magna  Graecia,  and 
since  Calabria.    Hence  he  travelled  into  the  East,  where 
the  first  of  his  masters  was  an  Assyrian,  supposed  by 
some  to  have  been  Bardesanes,   by  others  Tatian,  the 
scholar  of  Justin  martyr  :  the  next  originally  a  Jew,  of  a 
very  ancient  stock,   whom^  he  heard  in  Palestine,  whom 
Baronius   will  have  to  have  been  Theophilus,  bishop  of 
Caesarea  (though  for  his  Hebrew  descent  there  be  no  evi- 
dence among  tlie  ancients)  others  *^more  prol)ably  Theo- 
dotus,   whence  the  excerpta  out  of  his  liypoty poses  still 
extant,  are  styled,  in  t»v  ©iM^^i  iMcTuKui^  StS^cKaxuxu  the  epitome 
of  Theadotus^s  oriental  doctrine^   that  is,    the    doctrine 
which  he  learnt  from  Theodotus  in  the  East.     The  last 
of  the  masters  whom  he  met  with,  J'yva^H./e  «§*  ^soot®-,  as  he 
says  of  him,  but  the  first  and  chief  in  power  and  virtue, 

b  Stromal.  1.  l.p.  274.  &  ap.  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.  11.  p.  176 

c  Lib.  6.  c.  13.  p.  215.  d  Loc.  citat  e  Ad  Ann.  185.  n,  IV 

f  Vales.  Annot.  in  Euseb,  p.  95. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  357 

v.as  one  whom  he  inquisitively  sought  out,  and  found 
in  Egypt,  and  in  whose  institution  he  fully  acquiesced, 
and  sought  no  further.  This  person  is  generally  ,sup. 
posed  to  have  been  Pantasnus,  Avhom  Clemens  elsewhere 
^  expressly  affirms  to  have  been  his  master,  and  whom 
in  the  fore  mentioned  epitome  he  styles  ^  our  Pantanus. 
3.  But  though  he  put  himself  under  the  discipline  of 
so  many  several  masters,  yet  was  it  not  out  of  any  vain 
desultory  lightness,  or  phantastic  curiosity,  but  to  make 
researches  after  truth  with  an  honest  and  inquisitive 
mind.  He  loved  what  was  manly  and  generous,  where- 
ver he  met  it :  and  therefore  tells  us',  he  did  not  simply 
approve  all  philosophy,  but  that  of  which  Socrates  in 
Plato  speaks  concerning  their  mysterious  rites, 

Imitating  as  he  expresses  it  in  the  style  of  the  scripture, 
that  7nani/  are  called,  but  fexv  elect,  or  who  make  the 
right  choice.  And  such  (adds  Socrates)  and  such  only,  in 
my  opinion,  are  those  who  embrace  the  true  philosophy. 
Of  which  sort  (says  Clemens)  through  my  whole  life  I 
have  to  my  power  approved  myself,  desiring  and  endea- 
vouring by  all  means  to  become  one  of  that  number 

For  this  purpose  he  never  tied  himself  to  any  particular 
institution  of  philosophy,  but  took  up  in  the  */§s^/c  i/.xixii^iiy 
the  elective  sect,  who  obliged  not  themselves  to  the  dic- 
tates and  sentiments  of  any  one  philosopher,  but  freely 
made  choice  of  the  most  excellent  principles  out  of  all. 
This  sect  (as  the  philosophic  historian  ^  informs  us)  was 
begun  by  Potamon,  an  Alexandrian  too,  who  out  of 
every  sect  of  philosophy  selected  what  he  judged  best.... 
He  gave  himself  liberty  impartially  to  inquire  into  the 
natures  of  things,  and  what  was  the  true  standard  and 
measure  of  truth ;  he  considered,  that  no  man  knows 
every  thing,  that  some  things  are  obvious  to  one,  that 
are  overseen  or  neglected  by  another,  that  there  are 
wholesome  herbs  and  flowers  in  every  field,  and  that  if 

g  In  lib.  Hypot.  ap.  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.  11.  p.  175.        h  Ad  Gale.  Clem.  p.  808. 
i  Stromat.  I.  1.  p.  315.  k  D.  I.aert.  prcem.  ad  vil.  Philos.  p.  14. 


358  THE  LIFE    OF   St.  CLEMENS. 

the  thing  be  well  said,  it  is  no  matter  who  it  is  that  says 
it ;  that  reason  is  to  be  submitted  to,  before  authority, 
and  though  a  fair  regard  be  due  to  the  opinions  and 
principles  of  our  friends,  yet  that  it  is  oV;ov  rr^oitiuiv  t«v  ciMbiw, 
(as  '  Aristotle  himself  confesses)  more  pious  and  reason- 
able to  honour  and  esteem  the  trtuh.  And  thus  he  pick- 
ed up  a  system  of  noble  principles,  like  so  many  flowers 
out  of  several  gardens,  professing  *"  this  to  be  the  great 
end  of  all  his  disquisitions,  ^mv  kxtI  Trua-ttvdgiim  TihtUv,  a  life  per- 
fected according  to  all  the  rules  of  virtue.  Of  this  incom- 
parable order  was  our  divine  philosopher  :  /  espoused 
not  (says  he")  this  or  that  philosophy/,  not  the  stoic  or  pla- 
tonic,  nor  the  epicurean,  or  that  of  Aristotle,  but  xvhat- 
ever  any  of  these  sects  had  said,  that  was  ft  and  just,  that 
taught  righteousness  with  a  divine  and  religious  know- 
ledge, T8T0  trv/jLTTA't  TO  Uxviiuov,  oli  that  bcing  selected  I  call  phi- 
losophy. Though  it  cannot  be  denied,  but  that  of  any 
sect,  he  came  nearest  to  the  stoics,  as  appears  from  his 
discoursing  by  way  o^ paradoxes,  and  his  affected  novel- 
ty of  words,  two  things  peculiar  to  the  men  of  that  waj-, 
as  a  very  learned  and  ingenious  person  °  has  observed.... 
And  I  doubt  not  but  he  was  more  peculiarly  disposed 
towards  this  sect  by  the  instructions  of  his  master  Pan- 
tainus,  so  great  and  professed  an  admirer  of  the  stoical 
philosophy. 

4.  Pantcenus  being  dead,  he  succeeded  him  in  the 
schola  KsLTx/jxrim,  the  catechetic  school  at  Alexandria, 
though  questionless  he  taught  in  it  long  before  that,  and 
probably  during  Pant^nus's  absence  in  Lidia,  supplying 
his  place  till  his  return,  and  succeeding  in  it  after  his 
death,  for  that  he  was  Pant<enus's  successor,  the  ancients 
^  are  all  agreed.  Here  he  taught  with  great  industry  and 
fidelity,  and  with  no  less  success,  some  of  the  most  emi- 
jnent  men  of  those  times,  Origen,  Alexander,  bishop  of 
Hierusalem,  and  others  being  bred  under  him.  And 
now  (as  **  himself  confesses)  he  found  his  philosophy  and 


1  Ethic.  I.  1.  c.  4.  p.  3.  Tom.  2.  m  Laert.  loc.  cit. 

n  Strom.  1   1.  p.  288.  n  H.  Dodwel.  Prolegom.  Apol.  ad  lib.  D. 

Slearn  de  Obstin.  p.  115.  p  Euseb.  1.  6.  c.  6.  p.  208.  Hieron.   dfe 

Script,  in  Clement.  Phot.  Cod.  CXVIII.  col  297.  q  Strom.  1.  1.  p.  278 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS,  359 

Gentile  learning  very  useful  to  him  :  for  as  tlie  husband- 
man first  waters  the  soil,  and  then  casts  in  the  seed,  so 
the  notions  he  derived  out  of  the  writings  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, served  first  to  water  and  soften  t^  yiUxin  dvriy,  the  gross 
and  terrestrial  parts  of  the  soul,  that  the  spiritual  seed 
might  be  the  better  cast  in,  and  take  vital  root  in  tlie 
minds  of  men.  Besides  the  office  of  a  catechist,  he  was 
made  presbyter  of  the  church  of  Alexandria,  and  that  at 
least  about  the  beginning  of  Severus's  reign,  for  under 
that  capacity  Eusebius  takes  notice  of  him,  ^nn.  CXCV. 
About  which  time  prompted  by  his  own  zeal,  and  oblig- 
ed by  the  iniquity  of  the  times,  he  set  himself  to  vindi- 
cate the  cause  of  Christianity  both  against  heathens  and 
heretics,  which  he  has  done  at  large  with  singular  learn- 
ing and  dexterity  in  his  book  called  Stromata,  published 
about  this  time;  for  dniv^'mg  down  a.  c/ironologicai  ""  ixc- 
count  of  things,  he  ends  his  computation  in  the  death  of 
the  emperor  Commodus.  Whence  it  is  evident,  as '  Eu- 
sebius observes,  that  he  compiled  that  volume  in  the 
reign  of  Severus  that  succeeded  him. 

5.  The  persecution  under  Severus  raged  in  all  pro- 
vinces of  the  empire,  and  particularly  at  Alexandria, 
which  made  many  of  the  Christians  for  the  present  will- 
ing to  retire,  and  Clemens  probably  among  the  rest, 
whom  we  therefore  find  particulai'ly  discoursing  '  the 
lawfulness  of  withdrawing  in  a  time  of  persecution  :  that 
though  we  may  not  cowardly  decline  a  danger  or  death, 
when  it  is  necessary  for  the  sake  of  religion,  yet  in  other 
cases  we  are  to  follow  the  direction  of  our  Saviour,  u'/ien 
they  persecute  you  in  one  city^  Jiee  ye  into  another  ;  and 
not  to  obey  in  such  a  case,  is  to  be  bold  and  rash,  and 
unwarrantably  to  precipitate  ourselves  into  danger,  that 
if  it  be  a  great  sin  against  God  to  destroy  a  man,  who  is 
his  image,  that  man  makes  himself  guilty  of  the  crime, 
who  offers  himself  to  the  public  tribunal ;  and  little  bet- 
ter does  he,  that  when  he  may,  declines  not  the  persecu- 
tion, but  rashly  exposes  himself  to  be  apprehended, 
thereby  to  his  power  conspiring  with  the  wickedness  of 

r  Strom.  1.  1.  p.  336.         s  Lib.  6.  c.  6.  p.  208.  t  Srromat:  1.  4.  p.  504, 


360  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

his  persecutors.  And  if  further,  he  irritate  and  provoke 
them,  he  is  unquestionably  the  cause  of  his  own  ruin, 
like  a  man  that  needlesly  rouses  and  enrages  a  wild  beast 
to  fall  upon  him.  And  this  opportunity  I  doubt  not  he 
took  to  visit  the  Eastern  parts,  where  he  had  studied  in 
his  younger  days.  We  find  him  about  this  time  at  Jerusa- 
lem with  Alexander,  shortly  after  bishop  of  that  place, 
between  whom  there  seems  to  have  been  a  peculiar  inti- 
macy, insomuch  that  St.  Clemens  dedicated  "  his  book 
to  him,  called  The  Ecclesiastical  Canon,  ^  -^ep^  tkc  'uixii^omdLz, 
or  against  them  that  Judaize.  During  his  stay  here 
he  preached  constantly,  and  declined  no  pains  even  in 
that  evil  time,  and  with  what  success  we  may  see  by  a 
piece  of  a  letter  written  by  Alexander,  then  in  prison, 
and  sent  by  our  St.  Clemens  to  Antioch,  which  \vc  here 
insert*  "  ^  Alexander,  a  servant  of  God,  and  a  prisoner 
of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  blessed  church  at  Antioch,  in  the 
Lord  greeting.  Our  Lord  has  made  my  bonds  in  this 
time  of  my  imprisonment  light  and  easy  to  me,  while  I 
understood  that  Asclepiades,  a  person  admirably  quali- 
fied by  his  eminency  in  the  faith,  was  by  the  divine  Pro- 
vidence become  bishop  of  your  holy  church  of  Antioch. 
Concluding  these  letters,  worthy  brethren,  I  have  sent 
you  by  Clemens,  the  blessed  presbyter,  a  man  virtuous 
and  approved,  whom  ye  both  do,  and  shall  yet  further 
know :  who  having  been  here  with  us  according  to  the 
good  will  and  providence  of  God,  has  greatly  established 
and  increased  the  church  of  Christ."  By  which  epistle 
we  may  by  the  way  remark  the  error  of  Eusebius.  who 
places  Asclepiades's  coming  to  the  see  of  Antioch  in 
the  first  year  of  Caracalla,  Ann.  CCXIL  whereas  we  see 
it  was  while  Alexander  was  yet  in  prison  under  Severus, 
which  he  himself  makes  to  be  An7i.  CCV.  From  Jeru- 
salem then  Clemens  went  to  Antioch,  where  we  cannot 
question  but  he  took  the  same  pains,  and  laboured  with 
the  same  zeal  and  industry.  After  which  he  returned  to 
Alexandria,  and  the  discharge  of  his  office,  where,  how 
long  he  continued,  or  by   what  death  he  died,  antiquity 

u  Eseub.  1.  6.  c.  14.  p.  214.  Hieron.  in  Clement. 

V  A'jud.  Euseb.  ib.  c,  12.  p.  2\2.  w  In  Chron.  ad  Ann,  CCXM. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  361 

Is  silent.  Certain  it  is,  that  for  some  considerable  time 
he  outlived  Pant?enus,  who  died  in  the  time  of  Caracalla  ; 
and  when  he  wrote  his  Stromata,  he  tells  us  that  he  did  it 
that  he  miglit  lay  up  things  in  store  against  old  age  :  a 
plain  intimation  that  he  was  then  pretty  far  from  it.  I 
add  no  more  but  what  Alexander  of  Hierusalem  "says  in 
a  letter  to  Origcn,  where  having  told  him  that  their 
friendship  which  had  commenced  under  their  predeces- 
sors should  continue  sacred  and  inviolable,  yea  grow 
more  firm  and  fervent,  he  adds,  "  For  we  acknowledge 
for  our  fathers  those  blessed  saints,  who  are  gone  before 
us,  and  to  whom  we  shall  go  after  a  little  time  ;  Pantee- 
nus  I  mean,  the  truly  happy,  and  my  master  ;  and  the 
holy  Clemens,  my  master,  and  one  that  was  greatly  use- 
ful and  helpful  to  me." 

6.  To  commend  this  excellent  man  after  the  great 
things  spoken  of  him  by  the  ancients,  were  to  hold  a 
candle  to  the  sun.  Let  us  hear  the  character  which 
some  of  them  give  of  him.  The  holy  and  the  blessed 
Clemens,  a  man  very  virtuous  and  approved^  as  we  have 
seen  Alexander,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  who  knew  him 
best,  testifying  of  him.  Indeed  his  zeal  and  piety,  mo- 
desty, and  humility,  could  not  but  endear  him  unto  all. 
For  his  learning,  he  was  in  ^St.  Hierom's  judgment  the 
most  learned  of  all  the  ancients.  A  man  admirably  learn- 
ed and  skilftd^  and  that  searched  to  the  very  bottom  of  all 
the  learning  of  the  Greeks  with  that  exactness  that  per- 
haps few  before  him  ever  attained  to^  says  ^St.  Cyril  of 
Alexandria.  An  holy  man  ['Scxy^  ^Theodore)  i -roxvru^u  a^Tnty- 
7*c  d-ro>jrr«y,  and  onc  that  for  his  vast  and  diffusive  learning 
incomparably  surpassed  all  other  men.  Nor  was  he  less 
accurate  in  matters  of  theology  than  human  learning,  an 
'incomparable  master  in  the  Christian  philosophy,  as 
Eusebius  styles  him.  Witness  his  many  books,  crowd- 
ed, as  ''Eusebius  tells  us,  with  variety  and  plenty  of 
useful  knowledge,  derived  (as  ''St.   Hierom  adds)  both 

X  Ap.  Eiiseb.  1.  6.  c.  14.  p.  216.  y  Epist.  ad  Magn.  Orat.  p.  327. 

z  Contr.  Julian.  1.  7.  p.  231.  Tom.  6.  vid.  i.  6.  p  2<J5.  a  Hasret.  Fabul. 
I.  I.e.  6.  p.  197.  b  H.  Eccl.  1.  6.  c.  13.  p.  215.  c  De  Script,  in  Ckm.  & 
«d  Magn.  Or.loc.  rit, 

Z    Z 


362  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 

from  the  holy  scriptures  and  secular  learning,  wherein 
there  is  nothing  unlearned,  nothing  that  it  is  not  fetched 
out  of  the  very  centre  and  bowels  of  philosophy.  The 
titles  of  them  those  two  authors  have  preserved,  the  far 
greatest  part  of  the  books  themselves  having  perished, 
among  which  the  most  memorable  was  the  Hypotyposes 
or  Books  of  i?istitution,  so  often  cited  by  Eusebius, 
which  contained  short  and  strict  explications  of  many 
passages  of  holy  scriptures,  wherein  "^Photius  tells  us 
there  were  many  wild  and  impious  opinions,  as,  that 
matter  was  eternal,  and  that  ideas  were  introduced  by 
certain  decrees,  that  there  is  a  transmigration  of  souls, 
and  were  many  worlds  before  Adam,  that  the  Son  is 
among  the  number  of  created  beings,  and  that  the  Word 
was  not  really  ?nadejles/i,  but  only  appeared  so,  and  ma- 
ny more  0K!i(r<p>,/uioi  TegmrcMyiat,  mojistt'oiis  blasphemies  :  But 
withal  insinuates,  that  probably  these  things  were  insert- 
ed by  another  hand,  as  Rulinus,  expressly  assures  us, 
that  heretics,  had  corrupted  Clemens's  writings.  Cer- 
tainly had  these  books  been  infected  with  these  pro- 
phane  and  poisonous  dogmatia  in  Eusebius's  time,  wx 
can  hardly  think,  but  that  he  would  have  given  us  at 
least  some  obscure  intimations  of  it.  And  considera- 
ble it  is  what  Photius  observes,  thut  these  things  are  not 
countenanced  by  his  other  books,  nay  many  of  them 
plainly  contradicted  by  them. 

7.  The  books  yet  extant  (beridethe  little  tract,  enti- 
tled liiiTo.^ofxit&TrKi^i®',  lately  published)  are  chiefly  three, 
which  seem  to  have  been  written  in  a  very  wise  and  ex- 
cellent order,  the  aoj®-  n^oT^iTriuc;,  or  exhortation  of  the  Gen- 
tiles^ the  Pcedagogus,  or  Christian  instructor,  and  the 
Stromata,  or  -various  discourses ;  in  the  first  he  very  ra- 
tionally refutes  the  folHes  and  impieties  of  the  Gentile 
religion,  and  strongly  persuades  men  to  embrace  chris- 
tianity  :  in  the  second  he  tutors  and  instructs  new  con- 
verts, and  by  the  most  admirable  rules,  and  pathetical 
insinuations  j^repares  and  forms  them  to  an  holy  and  tru- 
ly Christian  life  :  in  the  third  he  administers  strong  meat 

d  Cod.  C\X.  col.  fP.j.    e  Apol,  pro  Orig'. inter.  Oper.  Hier.  Tom.  4.  p.  \95. 


THE   LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS.  363 

to  them  that  are  of  a  more  full  age,  a  clearer  explication 
of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  a  more  particular  confu- 
tation both  of  Gentile  and  heretical  opinions,  admitting 
the  disciple  after  his  first  purgation  and  initiation  into  a 
more  immediate  acquaintance,  with  the  sacred  myste- 
ries  of  rehgion.  His  Stromata^  are  nothing  but  miscel- 
laneous discourses  composed  out  of  the  holy  writings, 
and  the  books  of  the  Gentiles,  explaining  and  (as  occa- 
sion  is)  confuting  the  opinions  of  the  Greeks  and  barba- 
rians, the  sentiments  of  philosophers,  the  notions  of 
heretics,  inserting  a  variety  of  stories,  and  treasures  out  of 
all  sorts  of  learning  ;  which  as  himself  tells  us^,  he  there- 
fore styled  Stromata,  that  is,  a  variegated  contexture  of 
discourses,  and  which  ''he  compares  not  to  a  curious  gar- 
den, wherein  the  trees  and  plants  are  disposed  according 
to  the  exactest  rules  of  method  and  order,  but  to  a  thick 
shady  mountain,  whereon  trees  of  all  sorts,  the  cypress 
and  the  plantane,  and  laurel,  and  the  ivy,  the  apple,  the 
olive,  and  the  figtree,  promiscuously  grow  together. 
In  the  two  form^er  of  his  books  (as  'Photius  observes) 
his  style  is  florid,  but  set  off  with  a  well  proportioned 
gravity,  and  a  becoming  variety  of  learning  :  In  the  latr 
ter  he  neither  designed  the  ornan^nts  of  eloquence,  nor 
would  the  nature  of  his  design  well  admit  it,  as  he  truly 
apologizes*"  for  himself;  his  main  care  'was  so  to  express 
things  that  he  might  be  understood,  and  further  eloquence 
than  this,  he  neither  studied  nor  desired.  If  in  these 
books  of  his  there  be  what  '"Photius  affirms,  some  few 
things  here  and  there  ^7^  ^y^-,  not  soundly  or  warily  ex- 
pressed, yet  not,  as  he  adds,  like  those  of  the  Hypotypo- 
ses,  but  capable  of  a  candid  and  benign  interpretation, 
not  considerably  prejudicial  either  to  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  religion,  and  such  as  are  generally  to  be  met 
with  in  the  writers  of  those  early  ages.  And  it  is  no 
wonder,  if  the  good  and  pious  men  of  those  times,  who 
were  continually  engaged  in   fierce  disputes  with  hea- 


fVid.  Euseb.  1.  6.C.  13.  p.  214.  g  Strom.  1.  l.p.  278.1.4.  p.  476. 

h  Lib ,  7.  p.  766.  i  L<-c.  supr.  cit.  col.  288- 

k  Ubi.  supr.  p.  767.  \  lb.  1. 1.  p.  293.      m  Ubi..  supr. 


^ 


'■^ 


^64 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CLEMENS. 


thens  on  the  one  side,  and  Jews  and  heretics  on  the  other, 
did  not  always  og^oiofxm,  divide  the  truth  aright^  in  some 
nicer  lines  and  strokes  of  it.  The  best  is,  their  great 
piety  and  serviceableness  in  their  generations,  while  they 
lived,  and  the  singular  usefulness  of  their  writings  to 
posterity  since  they  are  dead,  are  abundantly  enough  to 
weigh  down  any  little  failures  or  mistakes  that  dropt  from 
them. 

PIS   WRITINGS. 


Extant. 
Protrepticon  ad  Gentes. 
Paedagogi,  Libri  III. 
Stromateon,  Libri  VIII. 
Orat,  Quisnam  dives  ille  sit, 

qui  salvetur. 
Epitome  doctrine    Orientaljs 

Theodoti,  §?c. 

Not  Extant. 
Hypotyposeon,  seu  Institutio- 
num,  Libri  VIII' 


Canon   Ecclesiasticus. 

seu 
Adversus  Judaizantes,. 
De  Paschate. 
De  obtrectatione, 
Disputationes  de  jejunio. 
Exhortatio  ad   Patientiam    ad 

Neophytos. 

Supposititious. 
Commentariola  in  Prim.  Cano- 

nicam  S.  Petri,  in  Epistolam 

Judse,    &    tres    Epistolas  S. 

Jpannis  Ap^stoli, 


'%:M 


^ 


^jmsok-^     :'..mk)i;:yA^: 


THE  LIFE   OF  TERTULLIAN, 

PRESBYTER  OF  CARTHAGE. 


His  names,  whence.  His  father,  who.  His  education  in  all  kinds  of 
learning.  His  skill  in  the  Roman  laws.  Different  from  Tert}  Han  the 
lawyer.  His  way  of  life  before  his  conversion,  inquired  into.  His 
married  condition.  His  conversion  to  Christianity,  when.  The  great 
cruelty  used  towards  the  Christians.  Severus's  kindness  to  them. 
Tertullian's  excellent  apology  in  their  behalf.  His  address  to  Scapu- 
la, and  the  tendency  of  that  discourse.  Severus's  violent  persecuting 
the  Christians.  His  prohibition  of  the  Heterice.  Tertullian's  book  to 
the  martyrs,  and  concerning  patience.  His  zeal  against  heresies,  and 
writings  that  way.  His  book  De  Pallia,  when  written,  and  upon 
what  occasion.  His  becoming  presbyter,  when.  His  book  De  Corona, 
and  what  the  occasion  of  it.  His  declining  from  the  Catholic  party. 
Montanus  who  and  whence.  His  principles  and  practices.  Tertulli- 
an's owning  them,  and  upon  what  occasion.  His  morose  and  stubborn 
temper.  How  far  he  complied  with  the  Montanists,  and  acknow- 
ledged the  paraclete.  How  he  was  imposed  upon.  His  writings 
figainst  the  Catholics.  The  severity  of  the  ancient  discipline,  ii- 
^liscopus  Efiiscoporum,  in  what  sense  meant  by  TertuUian  concern- 
ing the  bishop  of  Rome.  His  separate  meetings  at  Carthage.  His 
death.  His  character.  His  singular  parts  and  learning.  His  books. 
His  phrase  and  style.  What  contributed  to  its  perplexedness  and  ob- 
scurity.    His  unorthodox  opinions.     A  brief  plea  for  him . 

1.  QUINTUS  Septimus  FlorensTertuUianus,  was  (as 
the  ancients  "affirm,  and  himself  ''implies  when  he  calls  it 
his  country)  born  at  Carthage,  the  Metropolis  of  Africa, 
famous  above  all  others  for  antiquity,  sovereignty,  and 
power,  insomuch  that  for  some  ages  it  contended  for 
glory  and  superiority  even  with  Rome  itself.     He   was 

a  Hieron.  de  script,  in  Tertul.  Niceph.  H.  Eccl.  1.  4.  c.  ^4,  p,  334.      b.  De 
Pall.  c.  1.  p.  112.  &  Apolog.  c.  9.  p.  9. 


#^.. 


366  THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN. 

called  Septimius,  because  descended  of  the  Gens  Septi' 
mia,  a  tribe  of  great  account  among  the  Romans,  being 
first  regal,  afterwards  plebeian,  and  last  of  all  consular  and 
patrician.  Florens,  from  some  particular  family  of  that 
house  so  called,  and  Quintus  (a  title  common  among 
the  Romans)  probably  because  the  fifth  child  which  his 
parents  had ;  and  TertuUian,  a  derivative  from  Tertul- 
lus,  it  is  like  from  his  immediate  parent.  His  father 
was  a  soldier,  a  Centurion  under  the  proconsul  of  Africa 
(called  therefore  by  St.  Hierom  and  others  Centurio  pro- 
consularis)  not  a  man  of  proconsular  dignity,  as  some 
make  him;  he  was  a  Gentile,  in  which  religion  Tertul- 
lian  also  was  brought  up,  as  himself  ^confesses.  He 
was  educated  in  all  the  accomplishments  which  the 
learning  either  of  the  Greeks  or  Romans  could  add  to 
him,  he  seems  to  have  left  no  paths  untraced,  to  have  in- 
timately conversed  with  poets,  historians,  orators,  not  to 
have  looked  only,  but  to  have  entered  into  the  secrets  of 
philosophy  and  the  mathematics,  not  unseen  in  physic, 
and  the  curiosities  of  nature,  andas  Eusebius  ''notes,a  man 
famous  for  other  things,  but  especially  admirably  skilled 
in  the  Roman  laws  ;  though  they  who  would  hence  infer 
him  to  have  been  a  professed  lawyer  and  the  same  with 
him  whose  excerpta  are  yet  extant  in  the  pandects,  are 
guilty  of  a  notorious  mistake,  the  name  of  that  lawyer 
being  Tertylianus ;  besides  that  dissonancy  that  is  in 
their  style  and  language.  Or  suppose  with  others  that 
this  Tertylian  was  one  ofPapinian's  scholars  in  the  reign 
of  Alexander  Severus,  he  must  by  this  account  be  at 
least  thirty  years  after  the  other's  conversion  to  Christia- 
nity. The  original  of  the  error  doubtless  arose  from 
the  nearness  and  similitude  of  the  names,  and  the  charac- 
ter of  his  skill  in  the  Roman  laws  given  by  Eusebius, 
which  indeed  is  evident  from  his  works,  and  especially 
his  apology  for  the  Christians. 

2.  What  was  his  particular  course  of  life  before  he 
came  over  to  the  Christian  religion,  is  uncertain.  They 
that  conceive  him  to  have  been  an  advocate,  and  publicly 

c  Apol.c.  18.  p.17.        d  H.Eccl.  !.2.c.2.p.41. 


THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  367 

to  have  pleaded  causes,  because  after  his  conversion  he  * 
says  of  himself,  that  he  owed  nothing  to  the  forum,  took 
up  no  place  among  the  rostra,  made  no  noise  among  the 
benches,  did  not  toss  about  the  laws,  nor  clamour  out 
causes,  as  if  he  had  done  all  this  before,  might  by  the 
same  reason  conclude  him  to  have  been  a  soldier,  because 
he  adds  in  the  same  place,  that  he  owed  nothing  to  the 
camp,  with  some  other  offices  there  mentioned  by  him. 
That  he  was  married  is  evident,  though  whether  before 
or  after  his  embracing  the  Christian  faith,  I  cannot  posi- 
tively determine,  probably  before.  However,  according 
to  the  severity  of  his  principles,  he  lived  with  his  wife  a 
great  part  of  his  life  in  a  state  of  continency,  conversing 
with  her  as  his  sister,  exhorting  her  to  perpetual  celibacy 
and  the  utmost  strictnesses  of  a  single  life,  as  appears  by 
his  two  books  written  to  her  on  that  subject. 

3.  His  conversion  to  Christianity  we  may  conceive  to 
have  happened  not  long  after  the  beginning  of  Severus's 
reign,  and  a  little  before  the  conclusion  of  the  second 
century.  Being  a  man  of  an  inquisitive  and  sagacious 
mind,  he  had  observed  the  powerful  and  triumphant  effi- 
cacy of  the  Christian  faith  over  the  minds  and  lives  of 
men,  its  great  antiquity,  the  admirable  consent  and  truth 
of  the  predictions  recorded  in  the  books  of  the  Chris- 
tians, the  frequent  testimonies  which  the  heathen  deities 
themselves  gave  to  its  truth  and  divinity,  the  ordinary 
confessions  of  their  daemons  when  forced  to  abandon  the 
persons  they  had  possessed,  at  the  command  of  a  Chris- 
tian, all  which  he  shows  ^  at  large  (at  least  as  we  may  pro- 
bably guess)  to  have  been  the  main  inducements  of  his 
conversion.  In  the  very  entrance  of  the  following  secu- 
lum,  Severus  being  gone  to  make  war  upon  the  Parthi- 
ans,  the  magistrates  at  Rome,  and  proportionably  the  go- 
vernors of  provinces,  began  to  bear  hard  upon  the 
Christians,  beholding  them  as  infamous  persons,  and  es- 
pecially traitors  to  the  empire.  Among  whom  the  most 
principal  person,  I  doubt  not,  was  Plautianus,  a  man  in 


e  De  Pall.  c.  5.  p.  118  f  Vul.  Apol.  c.  19,  20.  p.  18.  c.  S."?.  p.  22,  23,  &  ali- 

bi passim 


368  THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN. 

great  favour  with  the  emperour,  whose  daughter  was  mar- 
ried to  Antoninus,  the  emperor's  eldest  son,  and  whom 
Severus  at  his  going  into  the  east,  had  made  prasfect  of 
Rome  ;  of  him  we  read  ^  that  in  the  emperor's  absence 
he  put  to  death  an  infinite  number  both  of  the  nobility 
and  common  people.  Among  whom  we  cannot  question 
but  the  Christians  had  theirs,  audit  is  like,  the  far  great- 
est share.  And  so  notorious  was  the  cruelty,  that ''  Se- 
verus at  his  return  was  forced  to  apologize  for  himself, 
that  he  had  no  hand  in  it.  And  indeed  Severus  in  the 
first  part  of  his  reign  (was  as  Tertullian  informs'  us)  very 
benign  and  favourable  to  the  Christians  ;  for  having  been 
cured  of  a  dangerous  distemper  by  one  Proculus  a  Chris- 
tian, who  anointed  him  with  oil,  he  kept  him  at  court  with 
him  ever  after.  Nor  did  his  kindness  terminate  here, 
for  when  he  knew  that  several  both  men  and  women  of 
the  senatorian  order  were  Christians,  he  was  so  far  from 
persecuting  them  upon  that  account,  that  he  gave  them 
an  honourable  testimony,  and  restrained  the  people,  when 
they  were  raging  against  the  Christians.  This  I  suppose 
to  have  been  done  at  his  return  from  the  Parthian  expe- 
dition,  when  he  found  both  governours  and  people  en- 
gaged in  so  hot  and  severe  a  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians. 

4.  The  barbarous  and  cruel  usage  which  the  Chris- 
tians generally  met  with,  engagedTertullian  to  vindicate 
and  plead  their  cause  both  against  the  malice  and  cruelty 
of  their  enemies.  For  which  purpose  he  published  and 
sent  abroifd  his  Apology,  dedicating  it  to  the  magistrates 
of  the  Roman  empire,  and  especially  the  senate  at  Rome 
(for  that  he  went  to  Rome  himself  and  personally  present- 
ed it  to  the  senate,  I  confess  I  see  no  convincing  evi- 
dence) wherein  with  incomparable  learning  and  elo- 
quence, with  all  possible  evidence  and  strength  of  rea- 
son he  pleads  their  cause,  complains  of  the  iniquity  and 
injustice  of  their  enemies,  and  the  methods  of  their  pro- 
ceedings, particularly  demonstrates  the  vanity  and  false- 
hood of  those  crimes  that  were  commonly  chai'ged  upon 

g  Dio.  Cass.  H.  Rom.  1.  75.  &  Xiphil.  in  Vit.  Sever,  p.   328.      h  Spartiau  in 
vit.  Sever,  c.  15.  p.  350.         i  Ad  Scupul.  c  4.  p.  TJ . 


niE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  5S9 

the  Christians,  arguing  their  meekness  and  innocency, 
tlicir  tcmiierance  and  sobriety,  their  piety  to  God,  and 
obedience  to  their  prince,  the  reasonableness  of  their  prin- 
oiples,  and  the  holiness  of  their  lives  beyond  all  just  ex- 
ception. An  apology  which  undoubtedly  contributed 
towards  tlie  cooling  and  qualif}ing  of  the  present  calen- 
cures,  especially  at  Severus's  return.  And  indeed  it  ap- 
pears not  by  the  whole  series  of  that  discourse,  that  the 
emperor  had  given  any  particular  countenance  to  those  se- 
\criLies  ;  nay,  on  the  contrary  he  expressly  styles '' him 
the  most  constant  prince.  Not  long  after  this  Tertullian 
found  work  nearer  home,ScapuIa,  the  president,  and  pro- 
Consul  of  Africa  (the  same  probably  with  ScapulaTertyl- 
lus,  a  provincial  president,  to  whom  there  is  a  Rescript 
of  Marcus  and  Commodus')  treating  theChristians  much 
at  the  same  rate  that  Platianus  had  done  at  Rome. 
To  him  therefore  he  addresses  himself  in  a  neat  and  pa- 
thctical  discourse,  representing  the  honesty  and  simplici- 
ty  of  Christians,  and  their  hearty  prayers  and  endeavours 
for  the  prosperity  of  the  empire,  and  those  particular  in- 
stances of  severity  which  the  Divine  Providence  had  late- 
ly inflicted  upon  it,  which  could  not  be  reasonably  sup- 
posed to  have  been  sent  upon  any  other  errand,  so  much 
as  to  revenge  the  innocent  blood  that  had  been  shed ; 
laying  before  him  the  clemency  and  indulgence  of  former 
princes  and  presidents,  yea,  and  of  the  present  emperor 
himself,  so  great  a  friend  to  Christians.  A  plain  evi- 
dence that  this  book  was  written  at  this  time,  before  Se- 
verus  broke  out  into  open  violence  against  them. 

5.  The  Christians  now  enjoyed  a  little  respite  :  but, 
aVis,  it  was  but  like  the  intermitting  fits  of  a  fever,  which 
being-  over,  the  paroxysm  returns  with  a  fiercer  violence, 
Ann.  Chr.  CCII.  Sevcri  X.  "  the  persecution  revived, 
and  was  now  carried  on  by  the  command  of  the  emperor. 
For  Severus  in  his  journey  through  Palestine  forbade 
"  ariv  under  the  heaviest  penalties  to  become  Jews  ;  and 
the   same  orders   he  issued  out  concerning  Christians. 


k  Apol.  c.  4.  p.  5.        1  L.  14.  flT.ae  Offic.  Prxsid.  lib.  1.  Tit.  18. 

m  Eiiseb.  Clugn.  Ad  cundcm  An.     n  JEI.  S'partinn.  '',n  vit.Sever.c.  17.p.3.>?, 

3  a 


370  THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIx-VN. 

The  general  pretence  it  is  like  was  the  prohibiting  the 
heterire,  or  unlawful  societies  (which  we  have  elsewhere 
described)  for  such  a  rescript  °  Ulpian  mentions,  where- 
by Severus  forbade  the  illegal  colleges,  commanding  the 
persons  frequenting  them  to  be  accused  before  the  Prai- 
fect  of  the  city,  in  which  number  they  usually  beheld  the 
Christians  ;  though  I  doubt  not  but  there  were  (as  Spar- 
tianus  plainly  affirms)  particular  edicts  issued  out  against 
them.  The  people,  who  could  hardly  be  held  in  before, 
having  now  the  reins  thrown  upon  their  necks,  and-  spur- 
red on  by  the  imperial  orders  ran  apace  upon  the  execu- 
tion, so  that  the  churches  in  all  places  ^  were  filled  with 
martyrdoms  and  the  blood  of  the  saints,  and  it  grew  so 
hot,  that  1  Jude,  a  writer  of  those  times,  drawing  down 
his  chronology  of  Daniel's  LXX.  weeks,  to  this  year, 
broke  off  his  computation,  supposing  'that  the  so  much 
celebrated  coming  of  antichrist  was  now  at  hand.  So 
exceedingly  (says  the  historian)  were  the  minds  of  many 
shaken  and  disturbed  with  the  present  persecution.  Ter- 
tullian,  that  he  might  speak  a  word  in  season,  took  hold 
of  the  present  opportunity,  and  wrote  to  the  martyrs  in 
prison,  to  comfort  them  under  their  sufferings,  and  exhort 
them  to  constancy  and  final  perseverance  ;  as  also  for  the 
same  reason  and  about  the  same  time  he  published  his 
discourse  concerning  patience,  wherein  he  very  elegantly 
describes  the  advantages  and  commendations  of  that  vir- 
tue, and  especially  urges  it  from  the  example  of  God,, 
our  blessed  Saviour,  and  speaks  therein  more  favourablv 
than  he  did  afterwards  of  retiring  in  a  time  of  persecution. 
Nor  was  he  less  watchful  to  defend  and  preserve  the 
church  from  errour  and  heresy,  writing  his  Prafscription 
against  Heretics  (for  that  it  was  written  about  this  time  is 
evident  from  several  passages,  especially  where  he  men- 
tions the  time  of  persecution,  the  place  of  the  tribunal, 
the  person  of  the  j  udge,  the  bringing  forth  of  lions,  and 
the  like)  wherein  he  enumerates  and  insists  upon  the  se- 
veral heresies  which  had  infested  the  church  till  tliar 


o  L.  1.  fF.  <le  ofiic.  Prafoct.  iirb.  §  14.  Tit.  12.  lib.  !.         p  Eiiseb.  11   ^:, 
L  6.  c.  1.  p.  201.  q  Ibid  c.  6.  {>.  TOo. 


THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  571 

time  ;  censuring  and  confuting  their  absurd  opinions, 
and  promising''  a  more  distinct  and  particular  confutation 
of  tiie  ii  aftervvard*^.  Wliich  accordingly  he  performed 
in  his  discourses  against  the  Jews,  against  Hermogenes, 
the  Valentinians,  Alarcion,  Praxeas,  and  some  others  of 
their  proselytes  and  disciples,  and  some  of  the  Monta- 
jiists  themselves,  writing  a  particular  tract  concerning 
baptism,  and  the  use  of  water  in  it,  and  its  necessity  to 
salvation,  against  Quintilla,  a  woman  of  great  note  and 
eminency  among  the  followers  of  Montanus,  what  value 
soever  he  afterwards  seemed  to  put  upon  that  sect. 

6.  About  the  XV.  of  Sevcrus,  Ann.  Chr.  CCVII.  he 
published  his  book  De  Pallio  upon  this  occasion.  He 
had  lately  left  of  the  gown,  the  garment  ordinarily  worn 
in  all  parts  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  had  put  on  the 
cloak,  the  usual  habit  of  philosophers,  and  of  all  those 
Christians  that  entered  upon  a  severer  state  of  life,  as  we 
have  shown  in  the  life  of  Justin  martyr.  Hereupon  he 
was  derided  by  them  of  Carthage  for  his  lightness  and 
vanity,  in  so  wantonly  skipping  a  toga  ad  pallium^  from 
the  gown  to  the  cloak,  saiyrically  taxing  his  inconstancy 
in  turning  from  one  course  of  life  to  another.  To  vindi- 
cate himself  he  writes  this  discourse,  wherein  he  puts 
forth  the  keenness  of  a  sarcastic  wit,  and  spreads  all  the 
sails  of  his  African  eloquence,  retorts  the  case  upon  his 
accusers,  shows  the  antiquity,  simplicity,  easiness,  and 
gravity  of  this  habit,  and  smartly  upbraids  that  luxury 
and  prodigality  that  had  overrun  all  orders  and  ranks  of 
men.  And  that  this  was  done  about  this  time,  and  not 
at  his  first  taking  upon  him  the  profession  of  Christianity, 
is  judiciously  observed  and  urged  by  Baronius,^  and  more 
fully  proved  by  the  learned  Salmasius,  in  his  notes  upon 
that  book.  Indeed  the  circumstances  mentioned  by 
*  TertuUian  do  not  well  suit  with  any  other  time,  as  the 
prcesentis  Imperii  triple;^  virtus^  which  cannot  reasonably 
be  meant  of  any,  but  Severus  and  his  two  sons,  Antoni- 
nus  and  Geta,  whence  in  several  ancient  inscriptions,  they 

r  De  Prsscript.  Hseret,  c.  45.  p-  219.  s  Ad.  Ann,  19ir.  n.  3.  h.  seq. 

t  Dc- Pall.  cap.  2.  p.  114. 


sm  THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAK 

are  put  together  under  the  title  of  AUGUSTI,  and  Eni- 
perours  ;  the  present  happiness,  security,   enlargement, 
and  tranquillity  of  the  Roman  state,  which  these  three 
powers  of  the  empire  had  made  like  a  well  cultivated 
fieJd,    eradicato  oimii  acojiito  hostilitatis,  every  poisonous 
weed  of  hostility  and  sedition  being  rooted  up,  with  si 
great  deal  more  to  the  same  purpose.     Which  evidently 
refers   both  to  his  conquest  of  Pescennius  Niger,  who 
usurped  the  empire,  and  whom  he  overthrew  and  killed 
at  Cyzicum  in  the  east,  and  to  his  last  year's  victory 
(as  "Eusebius  places  it)  over  Ciodius  Albinus  and  his 
party,  whom  he  subdued  and  slew  as  Lyons  in  France, 
for  attempting  to  make  himself  emperor,   as  afterwards 
he  came  into  Britain  [7naximum  ejus  Imperii  Decus^  as 
the  "'historian  styles  it,  the  greatest  honour  and  ornament 
of  his  empire)  where  he  conquered  the  natives,  and  secu- 
red his  conquests  by  the  famous  Pict's  wall,   which  he 
built  :  by  which  means  he  rendered  the  state  of  the  Ro- 
man empire  pacate  and  quiet.     At  the  same  time  v,-e  may 
suppose   it  was  that  Tertullian  was  made  presbyter  of 
Carthage,  and  that  that  was  the  particular  occasion  of  al- 
tering his  habit,  and  assuming  the   philosophic  pallium^ 
the  clergy  of  those  times  being  generally  those  who  took 
upon  them  an  ascetic  c^xrcs^Q  of  life,  and  for  which  rea>.on 
doubtless  the  cloak  is  called  by  Tertullian  in  his  dialect,* 
sacerdos   suggestus^   the    priestly    habit.       Accordingly 
^Eusebius  takes  notice  of  him  this  very  year  as  becoming 
famous  in  theaccount  and  esteem  of  all  christian  churches. 
7.   Before  Severus  left  Rome  in  order  to  his  Britannic 
expedition,  were  solemnized  the  decenalia  of  Antoninus 
Caracalla,   when  besides   many  magnificent  sports  i  nd 
shows   and  a  largess  bestowed  upon  the  people,  the  em- 
peror gave  a  donative  to  the  soldiers,   which  every  one 
that  received,  was  to  come  up  to  the  tribune  with  a  lau- 
rel crown  upon  his  head.     Among  the  rest  there  was  one 
a  ^Christian,    who  brought  his  crown  along  with  him  in 

a  Euseb.  Chron.  ad  eund.  Ann.  v  Spart.  in  vit.  Sever,  c.  18  p.  354. 

w  Ibid.  c.  4.  p.  118.  X  Chmn.  ad  An.  CCVIII. 

y  De  Coron.  Millit.  e.  1.  p.  IQO. 


THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  373 

his  hand,  and  bcinj^  asked  the  reason  why  like  others  he 
wore  it  not  ui)on  his  head  ?  answered,   he  conld  not  for 
tliat  he  was  a  Christian.  A  council  of  war  was  prcsently 
called,  and  the  man  accused  before  the  jreneral,  stripped 
of  his  military  ornaments,   his  cloak,   shoes,  and  sword, 
unmercifully  beaten,  till  he  was  died  in  his  own  blood, 
and  then  cast  into  prison,  there  expecting  martyrdom, 
and  a  better  donative  and  reward  from  Christ.     The  rest 
of  the  Christians,  who  were  fellow- soldiers  in  the  same 
army,  took  offence  at  his  over  nice  scrupulosity.     What 
was  this  but  needlessly  to  betray  their  liberty,  and  to  sa- 
crifice the  general  quiet  and  peace  of  Christians  to  one 
man's  private  humour  '?  to  give  the  common  enemy  too 
just  a  provocation  to  fall  upon  them  ?  Where  did  the 
laws  of  their  religion  forbid  such  an  innocent  compliance, 
nay  rather  not  only  give  leave,  but  commanded  us  pru- 
dently to  decline  a  danger,  by  withdrav/ing  from  it "?  what 
was  this  but  a  sturdy  and  an  affected  singularity,  as  if  he 
had  been  the  only  Christian  ?    Tertullian,  whose  might}' 
zeal  engaged  him  to  be  a  patron  to  whatever  had  but  the 
shadow  of  strictness  and  severity,  presently  set  himself 
to  defend  the  fact,    and  wrote  his  book  De  Corona  Mili- 
tis,  wherein  he  cries  up  the  act  as  an  heroic  piece  of  zeal 
and  christian   magnanimity,   not  only  warrantable,  but 
honourable,  not  only  lawful,  but  just  and  necessary,  for. 
tif\"ing  his  assertion  with  several  arguments,  and  endea- 
vouring to  disable  the  most  specious  objections  that  were 
made  against  it.     This   military   act,  and  Tertullian's 
vindication  of  it,  hrippened   (as  we  have  here  placed  it) 
Ann.  Chr.  208,  Sever.  16,  while  others  refer  it  to  the 
year  196.    Sever.  7,  when  the  emperor,  by  the  decree  of 
the  senate,  created  his  elder  sonx\ntoninus  emperor.^  and 
his  younger  Geta,  Ciesar,  in  testimony  whereof  he  en- 
tertained the  people  with  various  shows  and  solemnities, 
and  bestowed  a  donative  upon  the  soldiers.     If  the  rea- 
der like  this  period  of  time  better,   I  will  not  contend 
with  him,  it  being  what  I  myself,  upon  second  thoughts, 
do  not  think  improbable. 

8.   But  /et  him  that  thinketh  he  stamleth,  take  heed  lest 
befall   Tcrtuliian,  who  had  hitherto  stood  firm  and  right 


374.  THE  LIFE  OF  TERIULLIAN. 

in  the,  communion  of  the  Catholic  church,  began  now, 
about  the  middle  of  his  age,  says  ^St.  Hierom  (which  I  am 
inchnable  rather  to  understand  of  his  age  as  a  Christian, 
than  the  currentof  hislife)to  inchne  towardsthe  errours  of 
the  Montanists,  of  which  before  we  give  an  account. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  a  Httle  to  inquire  into  the  author  and 
principles  of  that  sect.  ^Montanus  was  born  at  Ardaba, 
a  little  village  in  Mysia  in  the  confines  of  Phrygia, 
where,  about  the  latter  times  of  Antoninus  Pius,  but  es- 
pecially in  the  reign  of  his  successor,  he  began  to  show 
himself.  Pride  and  immoderate  ambition  betrayed  the 
man  into  the  snares  and  condcnmation  of  the  devil.  At 
which  breach  Satan  having  entered,  took  possession  of 
the  man,  who  actuated  by  the  inRuence  of  an  evil  spi- 
rit, was  wont  on  a  sudden  to  fall  into  enthusiastic  fits 
and  ecstatic  raptures,  and  while  he  was  in  them,  in  a 
furious  and  a  frantic  manner  he  poured  out  wild  and 
unheard  of  things,  prophesying  of  what  was  to  come  in 
a  wa}'  and  strain  that  had  not  been  used  hitherto  in  the 
church.  Proselytes  he  wanted  not,  that  came  over  to 
his  party.  At  first  only  some  few  of  his  countymen, 
the  Phr\-gians  (whence  his  sect  derived  the  title  of  Cata- 
phryges)  were  drawn  hito  the  snare,  whom  he  instruct- 
ed in  the  arts  of  evil  speaking,  teaching  them  to  reproach 
the  whole  Christian  church  for  refusing  to  entertain  and 
honour  his  pseudo-prophetic  spirit,  the  same  spirit  on  the 
contrary  pronouncing  them  blessed  that  joined  them- 
selves to  this  new  prophet,  and  swelling  them  with  -the 
mighty  hopes  and  promises  of  what  should  happen  to 
them,  sometimes  also  gently  reproving  and  condemning 
them.  Among  the  rest  of  his  disciples  tAvo  women 
were  especially  remarkable,  Prisca,  and  Maximilla^ 
whom  having  first  corrupted,  he  imparted  his  daemon  to 
them,  whereby  they  were  presently  enabled  to  utter  the 
most  frantic,  incoherent  and  extravagant  discourses. 
The  truth  is  he  seemed  to  lay  his  scene  with  all  imagina- 


z  Dp  Script,  in  Tertull  a  VcL  Script,  ap.  Euseb.  1.  5.  c.  16.  p.  180  Sic. 

Apollon.  ii-iil.  c.  18.  p.  ]«4.  Ep5j>Ji.  Hjeres.  XLVIIl.^).  l7o.  TcrlulU  de  Pix- 
script.  Hjcreticc.  52.  p.  223. 


THE  LIFE    OF  TERTULHAN.  '373 

ble  craft  and  subtlety  ;  in  the  great  and  foundation  prin- 
ciples of  religion  he  agreed  v\'ith  the  Catholics,  embra- 
ced entirely  the  holy  scriptures,  and  pretended  that  he 
must  receive  the  gifts  of  divine  grace  extraordinarily  con- 
ferred upon  him,  which  he  gave  out  were  more  immedi- 
ately the  Holy  Ghost:  he  made  a  singular  show  of  some 
uncommon  rigours  and  severities  in  religion,  gave  laws 
for  more  strict  and  solemn  fasts,  and  more  frequently 
to  be  observed,  than  were  among  the  orthodox,  taught 
divorces  to  be  lawful,  and  forbid  all  second  marriages, 
called  Pepuza  and  Tymium,  two  little  towns  of  Phry- 
gia,  Jerusalem,  that  so  he  might  the  more  plausibly  in- 
vite simple  and  unwary  proselytes  to  flock  thither.  And 
because  he  knew  no  surer  way  to  oblige  such  persons 
as  would  be  serviceable  to  him,  than  proposals  of  gain 
and  advantage,  he  used  all  methods  of  extorting  money 
from  his  deluded  followers,  especially  under  the  notion 
of  gifts  and  offerings,  for  which  purpose  he  appointed 
collectors  to  receive  the  oblations  that  were  brought  in, 
with  which  he  maintained  under-ofiicers,  and  paid  sala- 
ries to  those  that  propagated  his  doctrines  up  and  down 
the  world.  Such  were  the  arts,  such  the  principles  of 
the  sect  first  started  by  Montanus  ;  what  additions  were 
made  by  his  followers  in  after  ages,  I  am  not  now  con- 
cerned to  inquire. 

9.  Allured  with  the  smooth  and  specious  pretences 
of  this  sect,  Tertullian  began  to  look  that  way,  though 
the  particular  occasion  of  his  starting  aside  ''St.  Hierom 
tells  us,  was  the  envy  and  reproaches  which  he  met  with 
from  the  clergy  of  the  church  of  Rome.  They  that  con 
ceive  him  to  have  sued  for  the  see  of  Carthage,  vacant 
by  the  death  of  Agrippinus,  and  tliat  he  was  opposed  and 
repulsed  in  it  by  the  clergy  of  Rome,  and  so  highly  re- 
sented the  affront,  as  thereupon  to  quit  the  communion 
of  the  Catholic  church,  talk  at  random,  and  little  consi- 
der the  mortified  temper  of  the  man,  and  his  known  con- 
tempt of  the  world.  Probable  it  is,  that  being  generally 
noted  for  the  excessive  and  over  rigorous  strictness  of 

b  Ubi  supra,  vid.  Nicepli.  1.  4.  c.  12.  o.  298, 


576  THE  LIKE  OF  TERTULLIAN. 

his  manners,  he  had  been  charged  by  some  of  the  Ro- 
man clergy  for  compliance  with  Montanus,  and,  it  may 
be,  admonished  to  recant,  or  disown  those  principles. 
Which  his  stubborn  and  resolute  temper  not  admitting, 
he  was,  together  with  Proclus  and  the  rest  of  the  Cata- 
phrygian  party,  cut  off  by  the  bishop  of  Rome  from  all 
communion  w  ith  that  church.  For  there  had  been  late- 
ly a  disputation  held  at  Rome  between  Caius,  an  anci- 
ent orthodox  divine,  and  Proclus,  one  of  the  lieads  of 
the  Montanist  party  (as  ""Eusebius,  who  read  the  account 
of  it  published  by  Caius,  informs  us)  wherein  Proclus 
being  worsted,  was,  together  with  all  the  followers  of  that 
sect,  excommunicated,  and  Tertullian  himself  among  the 
rest,  as  he  sufficiently  "^intimates.  This,  a  man  of  a 
morose  and  unyielding  disposition,  and  who  could  brook 
no  moderation  that  seemed  to  intrench  upon  the  disci- 
pline and  practice  of  religion,  could  not  bear,  and  there- 
fore making  light  of  the  judgment  and  censures  of  that 
church,  fiew  off,  and  joined  himself  to  Montanus's 
party,  whose  pretended  austerities  seemed  of  all  others 
most  agreeable  to  his  humour  and  genius,  and  most  ex- 
actly to  conspire  with  the  course  and  method  of  his  life. 
But  as  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  he  looked  no  further 
than  to  the  appearances  and  pretensions  of  that  sect  (not 
seeing  the  corrupt  springs  by  which  the  engine  was  ma- 
naged within)  so  it  is  most  reasonable  and  charitable  to 
conceive,  that  he  never  understood  their  principles  in 
the  utmost  latitude  and  extent  of  them.  If  he  seems 
sometimes  to  acknowledge  Montanus  to  be  the  paraclete 
that  was  to  come  into  the  world,  probably  he  meant  not 
something  distinct  from  the  Holy  Spirit  bestowed  upon 
tlie  apostles,  but  a  mighty  power  and  extraordinary  as- 
sistance of  the  Holy  Ghost  shed  upon  Montanus,  whom 
God  had  sent  into  the  world,  more  fully  and  perfectly  to 
explain  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  to  urge  the  rules 
and  institutions  of  the  Christian  life,  which  our  lord  had 
delivered  when  he  was  upon  earth,  but  did  not  with  tlie 

c  Lib.  6.  c.  20  p.  222.  1 .  2.  c.  25.  p.  67.  Micron,  de  Script,  in  CTilb. 
d  De  jejun.  c,  1.  p.  544. 


THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  ^77 

greatest  accuracy  the  things  were  capable  of  the  minds 
of  men  not  being  then  duly  qualified  to  receive  them. 
That  for  this  end  he  thought  Alontanus  invested  with 
miraculous  powers  and  a  spirit  of  prophecy  (a  thing  not 
unusual  even  in  those  times)  and  might  believe  his  two 
prophetesses  to  be  acted  with  the  same  spirit.  All  which 
might  consist  with  an  honest  mind,  imposed  upon  by 
crafty  and  plausible  pretences.  And  plain  it  is  that  for 
some  considerable  time  Montanus  maintained  the  repu- 
tation of  great  piety,  zeal,  sanctity,  and  extraordinary 
gifts,  I^efore  he  was  discovered  to  the  world.  And  Ter- 
tuUian  in  all  likelihood  had  his  accounts  concerning  him, 
not  from  himself,  but  from  Proclus,  or  some  others  of 
the  party,  who  might  easily  delude  him,  especially  in 
matters  of  fact,  with  false  informations  However  no- 
thing can  be  more  evident,  than  that  he  looked  ''upon 
these  new  prophets  as  innovating  nothing  in  the  princi- 
ples of  Christianity,  that  Montanus  preached  no  other 
God,  nor  asserted  any  thing  to  the  prejudice  of  our  bles- 
sed Saviour,  nor  subverted  any  rule  of  faith  or  hope,  but 
only  introduced  greater  severities  than  other  men :  that 
he  was  not  the  author,  but  the  restorer  of  discipline,  and 
only  reduced  things  to  that  ancient  strictness,  from 
which  he  supposed  they  had  degenerated,  especially  in 
the  cases  of  celibacy,  single  marriages,  and  such  like,  as 
he  ''more  than  once  particularly  tells  us.  Not  to  say, 
that  Montanus's  followers  (as  is  usual  with  the  after 
brood  of  every  sect)  asserted  many  things,  which  their 
master  himself  never  dreamt  of,  which  yet  without  dis- 
tinction are  laid  at  his  door,  and  Tertullian  too  because 
a  favourer  of  the  party,  drawn  into  the  guilt,  and  made 
liable  to  many  improvements,  to  the  hay  and  stubble 
which  the  successors  of  that  sect  built  upon  it. 

10.  But  however  it  was,  he  sto  liached  his  excom.mu- 
nication,  and  was  highly  offended  at  the  looseness  and  re- 
missness of  the  discipline  among  the  Catholics,  whom 
with  great  smartness  he  persecutes  under  the  name  of 
psychici,  or  animal  persons,  as  those  that  took  too  much 

d  De  Jc-jun.  loc.  citnt.         e  Vid  1.  de  Moncgam.  c.  l-  p.  5'j5.  &  r.  .",  &,  4  Sc 
passi.-n  dc  JejiiTt.  c.    i?.  p.  550.  551. 

.3     B 


o7B  THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN. 

liberty  in  their  manners  and  practices  of  devotion,  styling 
his  own  party  Spiritales,  as  whom  he  thought  more  imme- 
diately  guided  by  the  spirit,  more  plentifully    endowed 
with  the  gifts  of  it,  and  conversant  in  a  more  divine  and 
spiritual  life.     Against  these  Psychici  he  presently  pub- 
lished a  tract  De  Jejimiis,  wherein  he  defends  the  Mon- 
tanists  in  the  observation  of  their  fasts,  their  abstinence 
from  flesh,  and  feeding  only  upon  dried  meats,  their  sta- 
tionary days,  and  the  keeping  them  till  the  very  evening, 
while  the  orthodox  broke  up  theirs  about   three  of  the 
clock  in  the  afternoon  ;   in  all  which    respects    he  makes 
many  tart  and  severe  reflections  upon  them.     Indeed,  the 
devotions  of  those  times    were  brisk  and   fervent,   their 
usages  strict  and  punctual,  their   ecclesiastic  discipline 
generally  very  rigid  and  extreme,  seldom  admitting  per- 
sons that  had  lapsed  after  baptism  to  penance    and  the 
communion  of  the  church.     But  this  was   looked  upon 
by  moderate  and  sober  men  as  making  the  gate  too  strait, 
and  that  which  could  not  but   discourage  converts  from 
coming  in.  Accordingly  it  began  to  be  relaxed    in  seve- 
ral places,  and  particularly  the  bishop  of  Rome  ^  had  late- 
ly published  a  constitution,  wherein  he  admitted  persons 
guilt}'  of  adultery  and  fornication  (and  probably   other 
crimes)  to  a   place  among  the   penitents.       Against  this 
Tertiillian  storms,  cries  up  the  severity    of  the  ancient 
discipline,  writes  his  book  De  Fudicitia,  wherein  he  con- 
siders and  disputes  the  case,  and  aggravates  the  greatness 
of  those  offences,   and  undertakes   the  arguments   that 
pleaded  for  remission  and    indulgence.       And    if  in  the 
mentioning  this  decree  the  bishop  of  Rome  be  styled  JE- 
piscopus  Episcoporom^  the  champions  of  that  church  be- 
fore they  make    such  advantage  of  it,  should  do  well  to 
prove  it  to  have  l)een  a  part  of  tlie  decree,  or,  if  it  was, 
that  it  was  mentioned  by  Tertullian  as  his  just  right  and 
privilege,  and  not  rather  (which  is  infinitely  moie  proba- 
ble) Tertullian's  sarcasm,  intended  by  him  as  an  ironical 
reflection  and  a  tart  upbraiding  the  pride  and  ambition 
of  the  bishops  of  that  church,  who  took  too  much  upon 

f  Tt!t.  dc  Pudicit. c.  1,  p.  553. 


THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  3Y9 

them,  and  began  (as  appears  from  pope  Victor's  carriage 
towards  the  Asian  Churches  in  the  case  of  Easter)  to  do- 
mineer over  their  brethren,  and  usurp  an  insolent  autho- 
rity over  the  wlioie  Christian  church.  And  that  this 
was  his  meaning,  I  am  abundantly  satisfied  from  ^  Cy- 
prian's using  the  phrase  in  this  very  sense  in  the  famous 
synod  at  Carthage,  where  reflecting  upon  the  rash  and  vi- 
olent proceedings  of  the  bishops  of  Rome  (whom  though 
he  particularly  names  not,  yet  all  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  story  know  whom  he  means)  against  those  who 
were  engaged  in  the  cause  of  rebaptizing  heretics,  he 
adds,  *'  that  as  for  themselves  (the  bishops  then  in  the 
synod)  none  of  them  made  himself  bishop  of  bishops,  or 
by  a  tyrannical  threatening  forced  his  colleagues  into  a 
necessity  of  compliance  :  since  every  bishop  according 
to  the  power  and  liberty  granted  to  him,  had  his  proper 
urisdiction,  and  could  no  more  be  judged  by  another, 
than  he  himself  could  judge  others." 

11.  Whether  ever  he  was  reconciled  to  the  catholic 
communion,  appears  not ;  it  is  certain  that  for  the  main 
he  forsook  the  ''  Cataphrygians,  and  kept  his  separate 
meetings  at  Carthage,  and  his  church  was  yet  remaining 
till  St.  Augustin's  time,  by  whose  labours  the  very  re- 
lics of  his  followers,  called  Tertullianists,  were  dis- 
persed, and  quite  disappeared.  How  long  he  continued 
after  his  departure  from  the  church,  is  not  known  ;  St. 
Hierom  '  savs  that  he  lived  to  a  very  decrepit  age,  but 
whether  he  died  under  the  reign  of  Alexander  Severus, 
or  before,  the  ancients  tell  us  not,  as  neither  whether  he 
died  a  natural  or  ^'iolent  death.  He  seemed  indeed  to  have 
been  possessed  with  a  passionate  desire  of  laying  down 
his  life  for  the  faith  ;  though  had  he  been  a  martyr,  some 
mention  w  ould  without  peradventure  have  been  made  of 
it  in  the  writings  of  the  church. 

12.  He  was  a  man  of  a  smart  and  acute  wit,  though  a 
little  too  much  edged  with  keenness  and  satyrism,  acris 
€t  vehernentis  ingenii,  as  ^  St.  Hierom  characters  him,  one 

g  Apud  Cyprian,  p.  282.  h  August,  de  Uteres,  c,  86.  Tom,  6,  col,  31. 

i  De  Scrip.,  in  Tertyll.  k  Lo:.  citat. 


380  THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN. 

that  knew  not  how  to  treat  an  adversary  without  salt  and 
sharpness.  He  was  of  a  stiff"  and  rugged  disposition,  a 
rigid  censor,  inclined  to  choler,  and  impatient  of  opposi- 
tion, a  strict  observer  of  rites  and  discipline,  and  a  zeal- 
ous asserter  of  the  highest  rigors  and  most  nice  severities 
of  religion.  His  learning  was  admirable,  wherein  though 
many  excelled,  he  had  no  superiours,  and  few  equals,  in 
the  age  he  lived  in  :  TertuUiano  quid  eruditius^  quid 
acutius  ?  says '  St.  Hierom,  who  adds  that  his  Apology, 
and  book  against  the  Gentiles  took  in  all  the  treasures  of 
human  learning.  *"  Vincentius  of  Lire  gives  him  this 
notable  eulogium.  "  He  is  justly  (says  he)  to  be  esteem- 
ed the  prince  among  the  writers  of  the  Latin  church. 
For  what  more  learned  ?  who  more  conversant  both  in 
divine  and  human  studies  ?  who  by  a  strange  largeness 
and  capacity  of  mind  had  drawn  all  philosophy,  and  its 
several  sects,  the  authors  and  abettors  of  heresies  with  all 
their  rites  and  principles,  and  the  whole  circumference  of 
history  and  all  kind  of  study  within  the  compass  of  his 
own  breast.  A  man  of  such  quick  and  weighty  parts, 
that  there  was  scarce  any  thing  which  he  set  himself 
against,  which  he  did  not  either  pierce  through  with  the 
acumen  of  his  wit,  or  batter  down  with  the  strength  and 
solidity  of  his  arguments.  Who  can  sufficiently  com- 
mend his  discourses,  so  thick  set  with  troops  of  reasons, 
that  whom  they  cannot  persuade,  they  are  ready  to  force 
to  an  assent  ?  who  hath  almost  as  many  sentences  as 
words,  and  not  more  periods  than  victories  over  those 
whom  he  hath  to  deal  with." 

13.  For  his  books,  though  time  has  devoured  manv, 
yet  a  great  number  still  remain,  and  some  of  them  writ- 
ten after  his  withdrawment  from  the  church.  His  style 
is  for  the  most  part  abrupt  and  haughty,  and  its  fi\ce  full 
of  ancient  wrinkles,  of  which  "  Lactantius  long  since  gave 
this  censure,  that  though  he  himself  was  skilled  in  all 
points  of  learning,  yet  his  style  was  rugged  and  uneasy, 
and  very  obscure  ;  as  indeed  it  requires  a  very  attentive 

1  Epist.  ad  Mag.  Orator,  p.  328  T.  2.  m  Commonit.  adv.  Hires,  cap. 

21.  p.  59y  60.  n  Lib.  5.  cap.  1  p.  459. 


THE  LIFE  OF  TERTULLIAN.  381 

and  diligent,  a  sharp  and  sagacious  understanding,  yet 
is  it  lol'ty  and  masculine,  and  carries  a  kind  of  majestic 
eloquence  along  with  it,  'that  gives  a  pleasant  relish  to 
the  judicious  and  inquisitive  reader.  It  is  deeply  tine- 
tured  with  the  African  dialect,  and  owes  not  a  little  of 
ks  perplexedness  and  obscurity  to  his  conversing  so 
much  in  the  writings  of  the  Greeks,  whose  forms  and 
idioms  he  had  so  made  his  own,  that  they  naturally  flow- 
ed into  his  pen  ;  and  how  great  a  master  he  was  of  that 
tongue  is  plain,  in  that  himself"  tells  us,  he  wrote  a  book 
concerning  baptism,  and  some  others,  in  Greek  ;  which 
could  not  but  exceedingly  vitiate  and  infect  his  native 
style,  and  render  it  less  smooth,  elegant,  and  delightful, 
as  we  see  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  who  being  a  Greek 
born,  wrote  his  Roman  history  in  Latin,  in  a  style  rough 
and  unpleasant,  and  next  door  to  barbarous.  Besides 
what  was  in  itself  obscure  and  uneven,  became  infinitely 
worse  by  the  ignorance  of  succeeding  ages,  who  changed, 
what  they  did  not  understand,  and  crowded  in  spurious 
words  in  the  room  of  those  which  were  proper  and  na- 
tural, till  they  had  made  it  look  like  quite  another  thing 
than  what  it  was  when  it  first  came  from  under  the  hand 
of  its  author. 

14.  His  errors  and  unsound  opinions  are  frequently 
noted  by  St.  Augustin  and  the  ancients  (not  to  mention 
later  censors)  and  Pamelius  has  reduced  his  paradoxes 
to  thirty  one,  which  together  with  their  explications 
and  antidotes  he  has  -prefixed  before  the  editions  of  his 
works.  That  of  Montanus's  being  the  paraclete,  we 
noted  before,  and  for  other  things  relating  to  that  sect, 
they  are  rather  matters  concerning  order  and  discipline, 
then  articles  and  points  of  faith.  It  cannot  be  denied 
but  that  he  has  some  unwarrantable  notions,  common 
with  other  writers  of  those  times,  and  some  more  pecu- 
liar to  himself.  But  he  lived  in  an  age,  when  the  faith 
was  yet  green  and  tender,  when  the  church  had  not  pub- 
licly and  solemnly  defined  things  by  explicit  articles  and 
nice  propositions,  when  the  philosophy  of  the  schools  was 

o  De  Baptism,  c.  15.  p. 230.de  Coroii.  c.  6.  p.  104. 


3S; 


THE  LIFE  OF    TERTULLIAN. 


mainly  predominant,  and  men  ran  immediately  from  the 
stoa  and  the  academy  to  the  church,  when  a  greater  lati- 
tude of  opening  was  indulged,  and  good  men  were  infi- 
nitely more  solicitous  about  piety  and  a  good  life,  than 
about  modes  of  speech,  and  how  to  express  every  thing 
so  critically  and  exactly,  that  it  should  not  be  liable  to  a 
severe  scrutiny  and  examination. 

HIS    WRITINGS. 


Genuine. 

Apologeticus. 

Ad  Nationes,  Libri  2. 

De  Testimonio  Animael 

Ad  Scapulam. 

De  Spectaculis. 

De  Idololatriu. 

De  Corona. 

De  Pallio. 

De  Poenitentia. 

De  Oratione. 

Ad  Martyras. 

De  Patientia. 

De  CultLi  fosminarum  Lib.  2. 

AdUxorem,  Lib.  2. 

De  Virginibas  Velandis. 

Adversus  Judseos. 

De  Praescriptione    Hasretico- 

rum. 
De  Baptismo. 
Adversus  Hermogenem. 
Adversus  Valentin ianos. 
De  Anima. 
De  Carne  Christi. 
De  Resurrectione  Carnis. 
Adversus  Marcionem,  Lib.  5. 
Scorpiace. 
Adversus  Praxeaai. 


Libri  post  Lapsum  in  Monta- 

nismum  scripti. 
De  Exbortatione  Castitatis. 
De  Monogamia. 
De  Fuga  in  Persecutione. 
De  Jejuuiis. 
De  Pudicitia. 

Supposititious. 

Poemata. 
Adversus  Marcionem,  Lib.  5'. 
De  judicio  Domini. 
Genesis. 
Sodoma. 

Not  extant. 
De  Paradiso. 
De  Spe  Fidelium. 
De  Ecstasi. 

Adversus  Apollonium. 
Adversus  Apellecianos.' 
De  Vestibus  Aaron. 
De  Censu  Anims. 

Gr«ece. 
De  Corona. 
De  Virginibus  Velanisi 
De  Baptismo.. 


Ift' 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN, 

PRESBYTER,  CATECHIST  OF  ALEXANDRIA. 


(Drigen,  where  and  when  Ijorn.  Several  conjectures  about  the  original 
ofliisname.  His  father,  who.  His  juvenile  education,  and  ^eat  to- 
•wardliness  in  the  knowledge  of  the  scriptures.  His  philosophical  stu- 
dies under  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  His  institution  under  Ammonius. 
Amnionius,  who.  His  fame  and  excellency  confessed  by  the  Gentile  phi- 
losophers. Another  Origen  liis contemporary :  these  twoheedlessly con- 
founded. His  father's  martyrdom,  and  theconfiscationof  his  estate.  Ori- 
gen's  resolute  encouragement  of  his  father.  His  own  passionate  desire  of 
martyrdom.  His  maintenance  by  an  honourable  matron  of  Alexan- 
dria. His  zeal  against  heretics.  His  setting  up  a  private  school. 
His  succeeding  Clemens  in  tlie  catechetic  school  at  eighteen  years  of 
age.  The  frefjuency  of  his  auditors.  Many  of  them  martvrs  for  the 
faith.  Origcn's  resolution  in  attending  upon  the  martyrs.  His  danger. 
His  courageous  act  at  the  temple  of  Serapis.  His  emasculating  him- 
self, and  the  reasons  of  it.  The  eminent  chastity  of  those  primitive 
times.  Origen's  journey  to  Rome,  and  return  to  Alexandria.  His 
taking  in  a  colleague  into  the  catechetic  office.  His  learning  the  He- 
brew lungne.  The  prudent  method  of  his  teaching.  Ar/ibrosius  con- 
verted. Who  he  was.  His  great  intimacy  with  Origen.  Origen  sent 
for  l)y  the  governour  of  Arabia.  His  journey  into  Palestine,  and  teach- 
hig  at  (^aesaria.  Remanded  by  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.  Alexander 
Severus,  his  excellent  virti\es,  and  kindness  for  the  christian  relio-iou. 
()i-igcn  sent  for  by  the  empress  Mammaea  to  Antioch.  He  begins  to 
Avrite  his  commentaries.  How  many  notaries,  and  transcribers  em- 
ployed, and  by  whom  maintained.  Kotaries,  their  original  and  office  • 
xUi'iT  use  and  institution  in  the  primitive  chui  ch.  His  journey  into 
( ireccc.  His  passage  through  Palestine,  and  being  ordained  prcsbvter 
at  Caesarea.  Demetriiis  of  Alexandria,  his  envy  and  rage  against 
hiiu.  Origen  condemned  in  two  synods  at  Aiexandvia,  and  one  at 
Rome.  Tile  resip  nation  of  his  catechetic  school  to  Heraclss.  Hera- 
clas,  wha.  'I'nfi  story  of  his  offering  sacrifice.  'I'he  credit  of  this  story 
qucsvicued,  aatl  wliy.    His  depHvture  from  Alexandria,  and  iixing  at 


384  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

Caesarea.  The  eminency  of  his  school  there.  Gregorius  Thauma- 
turgus  his  scholar.  His  friendship  with  Firmilian.  Firmilian,  who. 
The  persecution  under  Maximinus.  Origen's  book  written  to  the 
martyrs.  His  retirement  whither.  His  comparing  the  versions  of  the 
Bible.  His  Tetrapla,  Hcxapla,  and  Octapla,  what,  and  how  managed : 
His  second  journey  to  Athens.  His  going  to  Kicomedia,  and  let- 
ter to  Africanus  about  the  history  of  Susantia.  His  confutation 
of  Beryllus  in  Arabia.  His  answer  to  Celsus.  Celsus,  wha  Origen's 
letters  to  Philip  the  emperor.  The  vanity  of  making  him  a 
Christian.  Origen's  journey  into  Arabia  to  I'efute  heresies.  The, 
Helcesaitae,  who  :  what  their  principles.  Alexander's  miraculous 
election  to  the  see  of  Jerusalem  ;  his  coadjutorship,  government,  suf- 
ferings, and  martyrdom.  Origen's  grievous  sufterings  at  Tyre,  under 
the  Decian  persecution.  His  deliverance  out  of  prison  ;  age,  and 
death.  His  character.  His  strict  life.  His  mighty  zeal,  abstinence, 
contempt  of  the  world,  indefatigable  diligence,  and  patience  noted. 
His  natural  parts  :  incomparable  learnmg.  His  books,  and  their  se- 
veral classes.  His  style,  what.  His  unsound  opmions.  The  great 
outcry  against  him  in  all  ages.  The  apologies  wiitten  in  his  behalf, 
several  things  noted  out  of  the  ancients  to  extenuate  the  charge.  His 
assertions  not  dogmatical.  Not  intended  for  public  view.  Generally 
such  as  were  not  determined  by  the  cliurch.  His  books  corrupted,  and 
by  whom.  His  own  complaints  to  that  purpose.  The  testimonies  of 
Athanasius,  and  Theotimus,  and  Haymo  in  his  vindication.  Great 
errors  and  mistakes  acknowledged.  What  things  contributed  to 
them.  His  great  kindness  for  the  Platonic  principles.  St.  Hierom's 
moderate  censure  of  him.  His  repenting  of  his  lash  propositions.  His 
"Writings  enumerated,  and  what  now  extant. 

1.  ORIGEN,  called  also  Adamantius  (either  from 
the  unwearied  temper  of  his  mind,  and  that  strength  of 
reason  wherewith  he  compacted  his  discourses,  or  his 
firmness  and  constancy  in  religion,  notwithstanding  all 
the  assaults  made  against  it)  was  born  at  Alexandria^ 
the  know^i  metropolis  of  Eg}'pt ;  unless  we  will  suppose, 
that  upon  some  particular  tumult  or  persecution  raised 
against  the  Christians  in  that  city,  his  parents  fled  for  re- 
fuge to  the  mountainous  parts  thereabouts,  where  his 
mother  was  delivered  of  him,  and  that  thence  he  was 
called  Origenes,  quasi  b  og«( -,«ii65if  (which  most  conceive 
to  the  etymology  of  his  name)  one  born  in  the  mcuntains.*- 
But  whether  that  be  the  proper  derivation  of  the  word, 
or  the  other  the  particular  occasion  of  its  imposition,  let 
the  reader  determine  as  he  please.  However  I  believe 
the  reader  will  think  it  a  much  more  probable  and  reason- 
able conjecture,  than  what  one  ^supposes,  that  he  was  so 

s>  "Og/jiviic,  0  sir  ttJ  o^«/  ^ £vi),Ss:'c.  Suid.  in  voc  'Oe^iy.  p.  330.  T.  2. 
b  llalloix  not.  ad  Grig,  dcfciis.  c.  I.  p.  1. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  385 

called  because  born  of  holy  parents  ;  the  saints  in  scrip, 
ture  being   (as  he  tells  us)    sometimes  metaphorically 
styled  Mountains.     The  first  and  the  last  I  dare  say  that 
e^•er  made  that  conjecture.     A   learned  man  "supposes 
him  rather  (and  thinks  no  doubt  can  be  made  of  it)  so 
called  from  Orus,  an  Egyptian  word,  and  with  them  the 
title  of  Apollo  or  the  sun   (from  iin  no  question,  \\  hich 
signifies    light  or  fire)    one  of    their  principal  deities. 
Hence  Orus,  the  name  of  one  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  as 
it  has   been  also  of  many  others.     And  thus  as  <i7,-i  tS  a/jc 
comes  Diogenes,  one  born  of  Jupiter,  so  *-ri  tS  ng^  is  derived 
Origenes,  one  descended  of  Or,  or  Orus,  a  Deity  so- 
lemnly worshipped   at  Alexandria.      A  conjecture  that 
might  have  commanded  its  own  entertainment,   did  not 
one  prejudice  lie  against  it,  that  we  can  hardly  conceive 
so  good  a  man,  and  so  se^"erc  a   Christian  as  Origen's 
father  would  impose  a  name  upon  his  child  for  which  he 
must  be  beholden  to  an  heathen  deity,  and  whom  he  might 
see  every  day  worshij)ped  with  the  most  sottish  idolatry, 
thatheshouldlethim  perpetually  carry  about  that  remem- 
brance of  Pagan  idolatry  in  his  name,  which  they  so  par- 
ticularly,  and  so  solemnly  renounced  in  their  baptism. 
But  to  return. 

2.  He  was  born  about  the  year  of  our  Lord  186,  be- 
ing seventeen'^  years  of  age  at  his  father's  death,  who 
suffered  Ann.  Chr.  202,  Severi  10.  His  father  was  Le- 
onidas,  whom  Suidas*"  and  some  others  (without  any  au- 
thority that  I  know  of  from  the  ancients)  make  a  bishop. 
To  be  sure  he  was  a  good  man,  and  a  martyr  for  the  faith. 
In  his  younger  years  he  was  brought  up  under  the  tutor- 
age of  his  own  ^father,  who  instructed  him  in  all  the 
grounds  of  human  literature,  and  together  with  them, 
took  especial  care  to  instil  the  principles  of  religion,  sea- 
soning his  early  age  with  the  notices  of  divine  things,  so 
that  like  another  Timothy,  y/'ow  a  child  he  knew  the  holy 
Scriptures^  and  was  thoroughly  exercised  and  instructed 
in  them.     Nor  was  his  father  more  dilieent  to  insinuate 

o 

c  Voss.de  Idol.  I.  2.  c.  10.  p.  183. 
d  Euseb.  H.EccM.6.  c  2.  p.  203.  e  In  voc.  'iifiyym,^.  339.  Tom.  2 

f  Eusel).  ibid.  p.  202. 

3  c 


386  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

his  instructions,  than  the  subject  he  managed  was  capa- 
ble to  receive  them.  Part  of  his  daily  task  was  to  learn 
and  repeat  some  parts  of  the  holy  Scriptures,  which  he 
readily  discharged.  But  not  satisfied  with  the  bare 
reading  or  recital  of  them,  he  began  to  inquire  more 
narrowly  into  the  more  profound  sense  of  them,  often  im- 
portuning his  father  with  questions,  what  such  or  such 
a  passage  of  scripture  meant.  The  good  man,  though 
seemingly  reproving  his  busy  forwardness,  and  admo* 
nishing  him  to  be  content  with  the  plain  obvious  sense, 
and  not  to  ask  questions  above  his  age,  did  yet  inwardly 
rejoice  in  his  own  mind,  and  heartily  bless  God  that  he 
had  made  him  the  father  of  such  a  child.  Much  ado 
had  the  prudent  man  to  keep  the  exuberance  of  his  love 
and  joy  from  running  over  before  others,  but  in  private 
he  gave  it  vent,  frequently  going  into  the  chamber  where 
the  youth  lay  asleep,  and  reverently  kissing  his  naked 
breast,  the  treasury  of  an  early  piety  and  a  divine  spirit, 
reflected  upon  himself  how  happy  he  was  in  so  excellent 
a  son.  So  great  a  comfort,  so  invaluable  a  blessing  is  it 
to  pious  parents  to  see  their  children  setting  out  betimes 
in  the  way  of  righteousness,  and  sucking  in  religion  al- 
most with  their  mother's  milk. 

3.  Having  passed  over  his  paternal  education,  he  was 
put  to  perfect  his  studies  under  the  institution  of  Cle- 
mens Alexandrinus,  then  regent  of  the  catechist  school 
at  Alexandria,  where  according  to  the  acuteness  of  his 
parts,  and  the  greatness  of  his  industry  he  made  vast  im- 
provements in  all  sorts  of  learning.  From  him  he  be- 
took himself  to  Ammonius,  who  had  then  newly  set  up 
a  platonic  school  at  Alexandria,  and  had  reconciled 
s  those  inveterate  feuds  and  differences  that  had  been  be- 
tween the  schools  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  which  had 
reigned  among  their  disciples  till  his  time,  which  he  did 
(says  my  author)  €v6i(W!-ac^g':cT0T^<?(\j<7;*i«,-:tx«9-<vcv,  out  of  a 
divine  transport  for  the  truth  of  philosophy,  despising 
the  little  opinions,  and  wrangling  contentions  of  peevish 
men,  and  propounding  a  more  free  and  generous  kind  of 


g-  Hierocl.  1.  1.  dc  provid.  &  Fat.  ap,  Phot.  Cod.  CCXIV.  col.  549.  &.  Cod. 
CCLI.  ceil.  1381. 


THE  LIFE    OF  ORIGEN.  387 

gen,  as  Porphyry  ''  besides  other  witnesses,  who  saw 
Origen  when  hiuisclf  but  a  youth.  This  Ammonius 
was  called  Saccas,  (from  his  carrying  '  sacks  of  corn  upon 
his  back,  being  a  porter  by  employment,  before  he  betook 
himself  to  the  study  of  philosophy)  one  of  the  most  learn- 
ed and  eloquent  men  of  those  times,  a  great  philosopher, 
and  the  chief  of  the  platonic  sect,  and  which  was  above  all, 
a  Christian,  born  and  brought  up  among  them,  as  *"  Por- 
phyry himself  is  forced  to  confess  ;  though  when  he  tells 
us,  that  afterwards  upon  maturer  considennion,  and  his 
entering  upon  philosophy,  he  renounced  Christianity,  and 
embraced  Paganism  and  the  religion  of  the  empire,  he  is 
as  little  to  be  credited,  and  guilty  of  as  notorious  a  false- 
hood (as  Eusebius  observes)  as  when  he  affirms  that 
Origen  was  born  and  bred  up  a  gentile,  and  tlien  turned 
off'  to  Christianity,  when  as  nothing  was  more  evident, 
than  that  Origen  was  born  of  Christian  parents,  and  that 
Ammonius  retained  his  Christian  and  divine  philosophy 
to  the  very  last  minute  of  his  life,  whereof  the  books 
which  he  left  behind  him  were  a  standing  evidence.  In- 
deed ""  Eutychius  patriarch  of  Alexandria  (if  he  means 
the  same)  seems  to  give  some  countenance  to  Porphyry's 
report,  and  further  adds,  that  Ammonius  was  one  of  the 
twentv  bishops,  which  Heraclas,  then  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria, constituted  over  the  Egyptian  churches,  but  that 
he  deserted  his  religion,  which  Heraclas  no  sooner 
heard  of,  but  he  convened  a  synod  of  bishops  and  went 
to  the  city,  where  Ammonius  was  bishop,  v.here  having 
thoroughly  scanned  and  discussed  the  matter,  he  redu- 
ced him  back  again  to  the  truth.  Whether  he  found  this 
among  the  records  of  that  church,  or  took  it  from  the 
mouth  of  tradition  and  report,  is  uncertain,  the  thing  not 
being  mentioned  by  any  other  writer.  But  however  it 
was,  it  is  plain  that  Ammonius  was  a  man  of  incompara- 
ble parts  and  learning,  "  Hierocles  himself  styles  him 
Qi-jj'ix'icii,  one  tauglit  of  God,  and  when  Piotinus  the  great 

h  Apufl  Euseb.  ibid.  c.  19.  p.  220.  vid.  Theod.  Seim.  VI.  de  Provid.  p.  96, 
i  Vul   T  .e-.d.  l< o  cit;it.  k  Loc.  cilat. 


P 


1  Vul    i  ,e-.cl.  l<:c'>  cu;it.  K  j^oc.  ciiai. 

m  Aniial.  p.  3-32  Edit.  Pucork.  vid.  etiam  Stlder..  not.  in  Eutych.  Sect.  23. 
147.  Lib.  do  P.'ovid.  &  fat.  ubi  s'jpr. 


388  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

platonist  had  found  him  out,  he  °told  his  friend  in  a  kind 
of  triumph,  that  this  was  the  man  whom  he  had  sought 
after.  Under  him  Origen  made  himself  perfect  master 
of  the  platonic  notions,  being  daily  conversant  in  the 
writings  of  Plato,  Numenius,  Cronius,  Apollophanes, 
Longinus,  Moderatus,  Nicomachus,  and  the  most  prin- 
cipal among  the  Pythagoreans,  as  also  of  Chgeremon  and 
Cornatus,  Stoics  ;  from  whom  (as  Porphyry  truly  enough 
observes)  he  learned  that  allegorical  and  mystical  way 
of  interpretation,  which  he  introduced  into  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine. 

4.  Besides  our  Adamantius,  there  was  another  Ori- 
gen, his  contemporary,  aGentile  philosopher,  honourably 
mentioned  by  ^Longinus,  ^Porphyry,  "^Hierocles,  'Euna- 
pius,  'Proclus,  and  others  ;  a  person  of  that  learning  and 
accurate  judgment,  that  coming  "one  day  into  Plotinus's 
school,  the  grave  philosopher  was  ashamed,  and  would 
have  gi^en  place :  and  when  intreated  by  Origen  to  go  on 
with  his  lecture,  he  answered  with  a  compliment,  that  a 
man  could  have  but  little  mind  to  speak  there,  where  he 
was  to  discourse  to  them,  who  understood  things  as  well 
as  himself,  and  so  after  a  very  short  discourse,  broke  up 
the  meeting.  I  am  not  ignorant  that  most  learned  men 
ha^-e  carelesly  confounded  this  person  with  our  Origen  : 
•Whence  'Holstenius  wonders  why  Eunapius  should 
make  him  school-fellow  with  Porphyry,  who  was  much 
his  junior,  whom  Porphyry  says  indeed  he  knew,  being 
himself  then  very  young,  and  this  probably  not  at  Alex- 
iuidria  but  at  Tyre,  where  he  was  born,  and  where  Ori- 
gen a  long  time  resided.  So  that  his  wonder  would 
have  ceased,  had  he  considered  what  is  plain  enough, 
that  Eunapius  meant  it  of  this  other  Origen,  Porphyry's 
fellow  pupil,  not  under  Ammonius  at  Alexandria,  but 
under  Plotinus  at  Rome.  Indeed  were  there  nothing- 
else,  this  were  enough  to  distinguish  them,  that  the  ac- 
count given  of  Origen  and  what  he  wrote  by  Longiiui.s, 

o  Porphyi-.  ill  vlt.  Plotin.  p  2.  Ploiin.  Oper.  Prarf.  Por|jh_vT.  ap  Euseb.  uLi. 
sii;ir. 

p  Lib.  .■criA  Ti/.n;  ap'ul.  Porplnr.  in  vit.  Plotin.  q  Ibid.  v  Lib.  de  Fat. 

iihi.  s^:pr.     '    3  In  vit.  Proj)h\i-.'p.  19.         t  In  Plat.  Tlieol.  1.  2,c.  4.  p.  90. 

ttAp.  Porplr/r.  ioc.  oil.      '  v  Dc  Vit.  St  Script.  Porpiiyr.  c.  C.  p.  H- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  389 

by  Porphyry  in  the  life  of  Plotinus,  and  others,  does  no 
ways  agree  to  our  Christian  writer. 

5.  The  persecution  under  Severus  in  the  tenth  year 
of  his  reign  was  now  grown  hot  at  Alexandria,  Laetus 
the  governor  daily  adding  fuel  to  the  flames,  where 
among  the  great  numbers  of  martyrs  '"Leonides,  Ori- 
gen's  father,  was  first  imprisoned,  then  beheaded,  and 
his  estate  confiscated  and  reduced  into  the  public  exche- 
quer. During  his  imprisonment  "Origen  began  to  dis- 
cover a  most  impatient  desire  of  martyrdom,  from  which 
scarce  any  intreaties  or  considerations  could  restrain 
him.  He  knew  the  deplorable  estate  wherein  he  was 
like  to  leave  his  wife  and  children,  could  not  but  have  a 
sad  influence  upon  his  father's  mind,  whom  therefore  by 
letters  he  passionately  exhorted  to  persevere  unto  mar- 
tyrdom, adding  this  clause  among  the  rest,  Take  heed 
sir,  that  for  our  sakes  you  do  not  change  your  mind.  And 
himself  had  gone  not  only  to  prison,  but  to  the  very 
block  with  his  father,  if  the  divine  providence  had  not 
interposed.  His  mother,  perceiving  his  resolutions,  treat- 
ed him  with  all  the  charms  and  endearments  of  so  affec- 
tionate a  relation,  attempted  him  with  prayers  and  tears, 
intreating  him  if  not  for  his  own,  that  at  least  for  her 
sake,  and  his  nearest  relatives,  he  would  spare  himself. 
All  which  not  prevailing,  especially  after  his  father's  ap- 
prehension, she  was  forced  to  betake  herself  to  little  arts, 
hiding  all  his  clothes,  that  mere  shame  might  confine 
him  to  the  house.  A  mighty  instance,  as  the  historian 
notes,  of  a  juvenile  forwardness  and  maturity,  and  a 
most  hearty  affection  for  the  true  religion. 

6.  His  father  being  dead,  and  the  -estate  seized  for 
the  emperor's  use,  he  and  the  family  were  reduced  to 
great  straits.  When  behold  the  providence  of  God 
(who  peculiarly  takes  care  of  widows  and  oq^hans,  and 
especially  the  relicts  of  those  that  suffer  for  him)  mad 
way  for  their  relief.  A  rich  and  honourable  matron  of 
Alexandria,  pitying  his  miserable  case,  liberally    contri- 

w  Eusq]3.  ib.  c.  1.  p.  201.         X  I,!,  c  2  p.  202, 
Euseb.  ibid.  p.  20o. 


390  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

buted  to  his  necessities,  as  she  did  to  others,  and  among 
them  maintained  one  Paul  of  Antioch,  a  ringleader  of  all 
the  heretics  at  Alexandria,  who  by  subtle  artifices  had  so 
far  insinuated  himself  into  her,  that  she  had  adopted 
him  to  be  her  son.  Origen,  though  he  held  his  livelihood 
purely  at  her  bounty,  would  not  yet  comply  with  this 
favourite,  not  so  much  as  to  join  in  prayer  with  him,  no 
not  when  an  innumerable  multitude  not  only  of  heretics, 
but  of  orthodox  daily  flocked  to  him,  taken  with  the  elo- 
quence of  his  discourses.  For  from  his  childhood  he 
had  religiously  observed  the  rule  and  canon  of  the  church, 
and  abominated  (as  himself  expresses  it)  all  heretical 
doctrines.  Whether  this  noble  lady  upon  this  occasion 
withdrew  her  charity,  or  whether  he  thought  it  more 
agreeable  to  the  Christian  rule  to  live  by  his  own  labour, 
than  to  depend  wholly  upon  another's  bounty,  I  know 
not :  but  having  perfected  those  studies  of  foreign  learn- 
ing, the  foundations  whereof  he  had  laid  under  the  dis- 
cipline of  his  father,  he  now  began  to  set  up  for  himself, 
opening  a  school  for  the  profession  of  the  learned  arts, 
where  besides  the  good  he  did  to  others,  he  raised  a  con- 
siderable maintenance  to  himself.  And  though  then 
but  a  very  youth,  yet  did  not  the  grave  and  the  learned, 
the  philosophers,  and  greatest  masters  of  heresy  disdain 
to  be  present  at  his  lectures,  whose  opinions  he  imparti- 
ally weighed  and  examined,  as  himself  'informs  us  : 
many  of  whom  of  auditors  '"'became  his  converts,  yea 
and  martyrs  for  the  faith,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by. 

7.  By  this  time  his  fame  had  recommeiKled  him  to 
public  notice,  and  he  was  thought  tit,  though  but  eigh- 
teen years  of  age,  to  be  made  master  of  the  Catechetic 
school  at  Alexandria,  whether  as  colleague  with  his  mas^ 
ter  Clemens,  or  upon  resignation,  his  successor,  is  un- 
certain ;  the  latter  seems  most  probable,  because  ''Eu- 
sebius  reports  that  Demetrius  bishop  of  Alexandria  com- 
mitted the  instruction  of  the  Catechumens  to  him  only, 
unless  we  will  understand  it  of  some  private  and  particu- 
liar  school,  distinct  from  the  ordinary  catechetic  school, 

z  Epist.  ap.  Euseb.  ih   c.  19.  p.  221.  a  Ibid.  c.  30.  p.  204.  b  Ibid. 

p.  205. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  391 

philosophy  to  his  auditors.     Among  whom  was  our  Ori- 

till  Clcmens's  death,  whose  successor  the  ancients  genc-^ 
rally  make  him.     Scholars  in  very  great  numbers  daily 
crowded  in  upon  him,  so  that  finding  he  had  enough  to 
do,  and  that  his  diftcrcnt  imployments  did  not  well  con- 
sist together,  he  left  oft'  teaching  the    arts   and  sciences, 
and  gave  up  himself  entirely  to  the  instructing  his  disci- 
ples  in  the  rudiments  of  chris:tianity.     Being  settled  in 
this  office,  he  follo^v•ed  it  with   infinite  diligence,  and  no 
less  success.     For  he  not  only  built  up  those  who  were 
already  Christians,  but  ''gained  over  a   great  number  of 
Gentile  philosophers  to  the   faith,  who  embraced  Chris- 
tianity with  so  hearty  and  sincere  a  mind,  as  readily  to 
seal  it  with  their  blood.     Among   which  of  most  note 
were   Plutarch,  whom  Origen   attending  to  his  martyr- 
dom was  like  to  have  been  killed  by  the  people  for  be- 
ing the   author  of  his  conversion  ;    Serenus,  who    was 
burnt  for  his  religion,  Heraclides  and  Heron,   both  be- 
headed, the   one  while  but  a  Catechumen,  the  other  a 
novice  ;  next  came  a  second  Serenus,   who  after  he  had 
endured  infinite  torments,   lost  his  head,    and  gained  a 
crown.     Nay    the   weaker  sex  also  put  in  for  a  share, 
one  Herais,    a  catechumen,  and  Origen's  scholar,  being 
as  himself  expresses  it,  to  /^a-tIi^ua  ri  s^t^  wugsc  xaCi^a,  baptized 
by  Jire,  left  this  world,  and  in  those  flames  mounted  up 
to  heaven.     Nor  was  Origen   so  wholly  swallowed    up 
with  the  care  of  his  school,  as  not  to  perform  Muties  of 
piety  and  humanity  towards  others,   especially   martyrs, 
and  those  that  were   condemned   to  die.     For  Aquila, 
Laetus's  successor,   in  the  government  of  Alexandria, 
that  he   might  do  something   singular  in  the  entrance 
upon   his  place,  rcncAved  the  persecution,  which  was  so 
severe,  that  every  one  consulted  his  own  safety,  and  kept 
close  ;  so  that  when  the  martyrs  were  in  prison,  or  led  to 
trial,  or  execution,  there  was  none  to  comfort  them,  or 
minister   unto   them.     This  office  Origen    boldly  took 
upon  him,  attending  the   martyrs   to   the  very   place  of 
execution,  embracing   and  saluting  them  as  they  were 
led  along,  till  the  enraged  multitude    pelted  him  with 

c  Id.  ibid.  c.  4.  p.  206.  d  Ibid.  p.  204. 


392  THE    LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

showers  of  stones,  and  an  hundred  times  was  he  in  danger 
of  his  hfe,  had  not  the  divine  providence  immediately  in- 
terposed to  rescue  him.  At  hist  the}^  resolved  to  find  him 
out,  great  multitudes  besetting  his  house,  and  because  he 
had  vast  numbers  of  scholars,  they  brought  a  guard  of 
soldiers  along  with  them,  who  hunted  him  from  house 
to  house,  so  that  no  place  could  aftbrd  him  a  quiet  re- 
fuge. And  to  this  period  of  time  I  find  some  learned 
men  (and  I  think  very  probably)  ascribing  that  passage 
which  ''Epiphanius  reports  concerning  him,  that  he  was 
hauled  up  and  down  the  city,  reviled  and  reproached, 
and  treated  with  insolent  scorn  and  fury.  Once  having 
shaved  his  head  after  the  manner  of  the  Egyptian  priests, 
they  set  him  upon  the  stepsofSerapis's  temple,  comman- 
ding him  to  give  branches  of  palm-trees,  as  the  priests 
used  to  do,  to  them  that  went  up  to  perform  their  holy 
rites.  He  taking  the  branches  with  a  ready  and  unterri- 
fied  mind,  cried  out  aloud,  Cotne  hither^  and  take  the 
branchy  not  of  an  idol-temple^  hut  of  Christ.  A  piece  of 
courage  which  I  suppose  did  not  contribute  to  mitigate 
their  rage  against  him. 

8.  About  this  time  he  made  that  famous  attempt  upon 
himself,  so  much  commended  by  some,  but  condemned 
by  others,  his  making  himself  an  eunuch,  which,  as  ap- 
pears from  *  Epiphanius,  some  of  the  ancients  conceived 
to  have  been  done  by  medicinal  applications,  which  en- 
ervated the  powers  and  tendencies  of  nature  that  way, 
though  others,  and  ^  St.  Hierom  expressly,  say  it  was 
done  with  the  knife.  But  however  it  was,  he  did  it  part- 
ly out  of  a  perverse  interpretation  ^  of  our  Saviour's  mean- 
ing, wlien  he  says,  there  be  sotne  which  make  themselves 
eimuchsfor  the  kingdom  of  heaven'' s  sake^  which  he  would 
needs  literally  understand  ;  partly  out  of  a  desire  to  take 
away  all  suspicion  of  wantonness  and  incontinency, 
which  the  Gentiles  might  be  apt  enough  to  cast  upon 
him,  whcii  they  saw  him  admit  not  men  only,  but  women 
into  his  discipline  ;  besides  that   hereby  he  himself  was 


e  Heres.  LXlV.p.  22r.  f  Ubi  siipr.  p.  228.  g'  Ad  Painach.  de 

error.  Orig\  Tom.  2.  p.  lVf'-\  h  Euseb.  ibid.  c.  8.  p.  209, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  39;^ 

secured  from  any  temptations  to  immodest  and  irregular 
embraces.  How  strict  and  severe  was  the  chastity  of  those 
primitive  times,  we  have  showed  at  large  in  another  place  ; 
so  great,  that '  Justin  the  martyr  tells  us  of  a  young  man 
of  Alexandria,  Nvho  to  convince  the  Gentiles  of  the  false- 
hood of  that  malicious  charge  upon  the  incontinency  and 
promiscuous  mixtures,  which  they  usually  laid  upon  the 
Christians,  presented  a  petition  to  Faslix,  the  president  of 
Alexandria,  desiring  his  leave  that  the  physicians  might 
make  him  an  eunuch,  which  the  president  refused,  as 
prohibited  by  the  laws  of  the  Roman  empire  ;  as  it  was 
afterwards  by  several  provisos  and  canons  of  the  church. 
This  fact  though  Origen  endeavoured  to  conceal  from 
some  of  his  friends,  yet  did  it  quickly  break  out,  and  De- 
metrius the  bishop  who  now  admired  it  as  an  heroic  act  of 
temperance,  and  an  instance  of  a  great  and  a  daring  mind, 
did  afterwards  load  it  with  all  its  aggravations,  andbringit 
in  as  an  inexcusable  charge  against  him.  I  add  no  more 
concerning  this  than  that  whatever  Origen  might  do  now 
in  the  vigor  of  his  youth,  and  through  the  sprightliness  of 
his  devout  zeal,  yet  in  his  more  considerate  and  reduced 
age  he  was  of  another  mind,  condemning  '^  such  kind  of 
attempts,  soberly  enough  expounding  that  passage  of  our 
Saviour,  which  before  he  had  so  fatally  misunderstood. 

9.  Severus,  the  emperor,  that  violent  enemy  of  Christians 
being  dead,  Ann.  Chr.  CCXI.  Origen  '  had  a  great  desire 
to  see  the  church  of  Rome,  so  venerable  for  its  antiquity 
and  renown,  and  accordingly  came  thither,  while  ];ope 
Zephyrin  sat  bishop  of  that  see,  where  he  staid  not  long, 
but  returned  back  to  Alexandria,  and  to  his  accustomed 
catechetic  office,  Demetrius  earnestly  importiming  him  to 
resume  it  But  finding  the  employment  ""  grow  upon  him, 
and  so  wholly  to  engross  his  time,  as  not  to  allow  him 
the  least  leisure  for  retirement  and  contemplation,  and  the 
study  of  the  scriptures,  so  fast  did  auditors  press  in  up- 
on him  from  morning  till  night,  he  took  in  Heraclas,  who 
had  been  his  scholar,   a  man  versed  both  In   divine  and 


i  Apolog.  11.  p  71.  k  Via.  Comment.   h\  Matt.  p.  363.  &  p.  370, 

Fdit.  Hu(»t.  i  E;  scb.  lb  c.  14.  p.  216.  m  Ibid.  c.  15.  p.  -1". 

3   1) 


394  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

human  studies,  to  be  his  partner,  dividing  the  work  bCr 
tween  them,  the  younger  and  more  untutored  catechu- 
mens he  committed  to  him  ;  the  maturer,  and  those  who 
had  been  of  a  longer  standing  he  reserved  to  be  instruct- 
ed by  himself.  And  now  he  gave  up  himself  to  a  closer 
and  more  accurate  study  of  the  holy  scriptures,  which 
that  he  might  manage  with  the  better  success,  he  set  him- 
self to  learn  the  Hebrew  tongue,  thetj'ue  key  to  unlock 
the  door  (wherein  as  "  St.  Kierom  probably  inti- 
mates, he  was  assisted  by  the  help  of  Huillus  the  Jew- 
ish patriarch  at  that  time,  at  least  in  the  Rabbinic  ex- 
position of  the  scripture)  a  thing  little  understood  in 
those  times,  and  the  place  he  lived  in,  and  to  him  who  was 
now  in  the  prime  of  his  age,  and  the  flower  of  more  plea- 
sing and  delightful  studies,  no  doubt  very  difficult  and 
uneasy.  But  nothing  is  hard  to  an  industrious  diligence, 
and  a  willing  mind. 

10.  Nor  did  his  pains  in  this  interrupt  his  activity  in  his 
other  employments  ;  where  he  perceived  °  any  of  his  scho- 
lars of  more  smart  and  acute  understandings,  he  first  in- 
structed them  in  geometry,  ai'ithmetic,  and  other  prepa- 
ratory institutions,  and  then  brought  them  through  a 
course  of  philosophy,  discovering  the  principles  of  each 
sect,  and  explaining  the  books  of  the  ancients,  and  some- 
times  himself  writing  comments  upon  them,  so  that  the 
very  Gentiles  cried  him  up  for  an  eminent  philosopher. 
The  ruder  and  more  unpolished  part  of  his  auditory  he 
would  often  exhort  to  the  study  of  human  arts,  assuring 
thera  that  they  would  not  a  little  conduce  to  the  right  un- 
derstanding of  the  holy  scriptures.  Many  flocked  to  him 
to  make  trial  of  his  famed  skill  and  learning  ;  others  to  be 
instructed  in  thc'precepts  both  of  philosophy  and  Chris- 
tianit)'.  Great  numbers  of  heretics  were  his  auditors, 
some  of  whom  he  converted  from  the  error  of  their  way  : 
and  among  the  rest  ^  Ambrosius,  a  man  of  nobility  and 
estate  at  Alexandria,  having  been  seduced  into  the  errors 
of  Marcion  and  Valentinus,  being  convinced  by  Origeu's 

n  Apolog.  atlv.  Ruflin.  Tom  2.  p  201.  o  Eus.  ib.  c.  18  p   21S, 

p  Enscb.  ib.  Hieron.  de  Sciip.  iii  Anib;os.  Suid.  ia  Vac.  '^^ly.  Epiph.  ubi  supf. 
n.  ?J8. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  395 

discourses,  renounced  his  former  heresies,  and  returned  to 
the  catholic  doctrine  of  the  church,  and  ever  after  became 
his  intimate  friend,  his  great  patron  and  benefactor.  He 
was  a  man  of  neat  elegant  parts,  and  was  continually 
prompting  Origen  to  cx])lain  and  interpret  some  part  of 
the  scripture  ;  as  oft  as  they  were  together  (as  *'  Origen 
himself  informs  us)  he  suffered  not  a  supper  time  to  pass 
without  discourses  to  this  purpose,  nor  their  very  walks 
and  recreations  to  be  without  them  ;  a  great  part  of  the 
night,  besides  their  morning  studies,  were  spent  upon 
these  pious  exercises  ;  their  meals  and  their  rest  were 
Tishered  in  with  continual  lectures,  and  both  night  and 
day  where  prayer  ended,  reading  began,  as  after  reading 
they  again  betook  themselves  to  prayer.  Indeed  this 
Ambrose  was  a  pious  and  good  man,  and  though  so  great 
a  person,  did  not  disdain  to  take  upon  him  the  office  of 
a  deacon  in  the  church,  nay  to  undergo  great  hardships 
and  sufferings,  becoming  an  eminent  confessor  for  the 
faith.  And  there  is  only  this  blot,  ""that  I  know  of,  that 
sticks  upon  his  memory,  that  when  he  died  rich,  he  re- 
membered not  his  dear  and  ancient  friend  whose  low 
and  mean  condition  might  wtU  have  admitted,  as  his 
pains  and  intimacy  might  deservedly  have  challenged,  a 
bountiful  legacy  to  have  been  bequeathed  to  him. 

11.  About  this  time  came  a  messenger'  from  the  go- 
vernor of  Arabia  with  letters  to  Demetrius  the  bishop, 
and  to  the  prsefect  of  Egypt,  desiring  that  with  all  speed 
Origen  might  be  sent  to  impart  the  Christian  doctrine  to 
him  :  so  considerable  had  the  fame  of  this  great  man 
rendered  him  abroad  in  foreign  nations.  Accordingly  he 
went  into  Arabia,  where  having  despatched  his  errand, 
he  came  back  to  Alexandria.  Not  long  after  whose  re- 
turn, the  emperor  Caracalla  drew  his  army  into  those 
parts,  intending  to  fall  severely  upon  that  city.  To 
avoid  whose  rage  and  cruelty  Origen  thought  good  to 
withdraw  himself,  and  not  knowing  any  place  in  Eg}pt 
that  could  afford  him  shelter,  he  retired  into  Palestine, 
and  fixed  his  residence   at   C^esarea,    where  his  excel- 

b  Epist.  ap.  Suid.   ubi.  supr.  p.  390.  vid.   Hieron.  Ep.  ad   Marcell.  p.  129. 
Tom.  1.        r  Hieron.  cle  Script,  iu  Ambros.        s  Euseb.  ibid.  c.  19.  p.  221. 


396  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

lent  abilities  being  soon  taken  notice  of,  he  was  request- 
ed by  the  bishops  of  those  parts,  though  but  then  in  the 
capacity  of  a  laic,  publicly  in  the  church,  and  before 
themselves  to  expound  the  scriptures  to  the  people. 
The  news  hereof  was  presently  carried  to  Alexandria, 
and  highly  resented  by  Demetrius,  who  by  letters  ex- 
postulated the  case  with  Theoctistus,  bishop  of  Cassarea, 
and  Alexander  of  Jerusalem,  as  a  thing  never  heard  of 
before  in  the  Christian  church  ;  who  in  their  answer  put 
him  in  mind,  that  this  had  been  no  such  unusual  thing, 
whereof  they  give  him  particular  instances.  All  which 
satisfied  not  Demetrius,  who  JDy  letters  commanded 
Origcn  to  return,  and  sent  deacons  on  purpose  to 
urge  him  to  it,  whereupon  he  came  back  and  applied  him- 
self to  his  wonted  charo-e. 

o 

12.  Alexander  Severus,  'the  present  emperor,  in  or- 
der to  his  expedition  against  the  Persians,  was  come  to 
Antioch,  attended  with  his  mother  Mammaea,  a  wise  and 
prudent,  and  (says  ^Eusebius)  a  most  pious  and  religious 
princess;  a  great  influence  she  had  upon  her  son,  whom 
she  engaged  in  a  most  strict  and  constant  administration 
of  justice,  and  the  affairs  of  the  empire,  that  he  might 
have  no  leisure  to  be  debauched  by  vice  and  luxury. 
Indeed  he  was  a  prince  of  incomparable  virtues,  histori- 
ans representing  him  as  mild  and  gentle,  compassionate 
and  charitable,  sober  and  temperate,  just  and  impartial, 
devout  and  pious,  one  advanced  to  the  empire  for  the 
recovery  and  happiness  of  mankind.  He  was  no  enemy  to 
Christians,  whom  he  did  not  only  not  persecute,  but 
favour  at  every  turn :  and  in  his  private  oratory  he  had 
among  other  heroes  the  images  of  Abraham  and  of 
Christ,  and  was  once  minded  to  have  built  a  temple  to 
him,  and  publicly  admitted  him  into  the  number  of  their 
gods.  He  highly  admired  some  precepts  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  from  their  discipline  learned  some  rites 
which  he  made  use  of  in  the  government  of  the  empire. 
But  to  return  to  Mammaea  :  being  a  Syrian  born,  she 
could  not  be  unacquainted  with  the  affairs  both  of  Jews 

t  Ibid.  c.  21.  p.  223.  vid.  excerpt,  ex  Jo.  Aiiliocli.  p.  830. 


THE    LIFE  OF   ORIGEN.  397 

and  Christians,  and  having  heard  of  the  great  fame  of 
Origea"  was  very  desirous  to  see  him,  and  hear  him  dis- 
course concerning  religion,  that  she  might  know  what 
it  was,  for  which  the  w  hole  w  orld  had  him  in  such  vene- 
ration. And  for  this  purpose  she  sent  for  him,  order- 
ing a  mihtary  guard  to  conduct  him  to  Antioch,  where 
he  stayed  some  considerable  time,  and  having  fully 
opened  the  doctrines  of  our  religion,  and  given  her  ma- 
ny demonstrations  of  the  faith  of  Christians,  lo  the  great 
honour  of  God  and  of  religion,  he  was  dismissed,  and 
permitted  to  return  to  his  old  charge  at  Alexandria. 

13  Henceforwaixi  he  set  upon  writing  'commentaries 
on  the  Holy  Scripture,  at  the  instigation  of  his  dear  friend 
Ambrosius,  who  did  not  only  earnestly  importune 
him  to  it,  but  furnish  him  with  all  conveniences  neces- 
sary for  it ;  allowing  him  besides  his  maintenance,  seven 
(and  as  occasion  was  more)  notaries  to  attend  upon  him, 
who  by  turns  might  take  from  his  mouth  what  he  dicta- 
ted to  them  ;  and  as  many  transcribers,  besides  virgins 
employed  for  that  purpose,  who  copied  out  fair,  what 
the  others  had  hastily  taken  from  his  mouth.  These 
notaries  were  very-  common  both  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  making  use  of  certain  peculiar  notes  and  signs, 
either  by  way  of  occult  or  short  writing,  being  able  by 
the  dexterit}'  of  their  art  to  take  not  words  only  but  en-- 
tire  sentences.  The  original  of  it  is  by  some  ascribed 
to  Tyro,  Cicero's  servant,  by  others  to  Aquila,  servant 
to  Mecaenas,  by  others  to  Ennius,  and  that  it  was  polish- 
ed and  enlarged  afterwards,  first  by  Tyro,  then  by  Aqui- 
la and  some  others.  It  may  be  in  its  first  rudeness  it 
was  much  more  ancient,  and  improved  and  perfected  by 
degrees,  every  new  addition  entitling  itself  to  the  first 
invention,  till  it  arrived  to  that  accuracy  and  perfection, 
that  (as  appears  from  what  '^Martial  says  in  the  case, 
and  Ausonius  Reports  of  his  amanuensis)  they  were  able 
not  only  to  keep  pace  with,  but  many  times  to  out  run 
the  speaker.      'I'hat  they  were  of  frequent  use  in  the 

•J  Euseb.  loc.  cU.  v  Ibid.  c.  23-  p.  224.  w  Lib.  14.  Eplgr.  208. 

X  Epigram.  36. 


398  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

primitive  church,  is  without  all  doubt,  being  chiefly 
imployed  to  write  the  acts  of  the  martyrs  ;  for  which 
end  they  were  wont  to  frequent  the  prisons,  to  be  pre- 
sent at  all  trials  and  examinations  ;  and  if  the  thing-  was 
done  intra  velum^  within  the  secretarium,  they  used  by 
bribes  to  procure  copies  of  the  examinations  and  answers 
from  the  proconsul's  register  ;  thence  they  followed  the 
martyrs  to  the  place  cf  execution,  there  to  remark  their 
sayings  and  their  sufferings.  This  was  done  in  the  most 
early  ages,  as  is  evident  from  ^Tertullian's  mentioning 
t\\<tfdsti  ccclesiii\  and  from  what  ^St.  Cvprian  says  in  his 
epistle  to  the  clergy  of  his  church,  and  'Pontius  the 
deacon  hi  his  life  :  where  he  tells  us,  that  their  fore- 
fathers were  wont  to  register  whatever  concerned  the 
martyrdom  of  the  meanest  Christian,  the  acts  whereof 
descended  down  to  his  time.  Thus  ''Eusebius  speak- 
ing of  the  martyrdom  of  Apollonius  in  the  reign  of  Com- 
modus,  tells  us,  that  all  his  answers  and  discourses  be- 
fore the  president's  tribunal,  and  his  brave  apology  before 
the  senate,  were  contained  in  the  acts  of  his  martyrdom, 
which  together  with  others,  he  had  collected  into  one 
volume.  So  that  the  original  of  the  institution  is  not 
without  probability  referred  to  the  times  of  St.  Clemens, 
bishop  of  Rome.  All  which  I  the  rather  note  because 
"it  gives  us  a  reasonable  account  hcvv^  the  answers  and 
speeches  of  the  martyrs,  the  arguments  and  discourses 
of  synods  and  councils,  and  extempore  homilies  of  the 
fathers  came  to  be  transmitted  so  entire  and  perfect  to 
us.  But  I  return  to  Origen,  whom  we  left  dictating  to 
his  notaries,  and  they  delivering  it  to  those  many  trans- 
cribers that  were  allowed  him  ;  all  which  were  maintain- 
ed at  Ambrosius's  sole  expense.  ""Photius  indeed  makes 
this  charge  to  have  been  allowed  by  Hippolytus,  deriv- 
ing his  mistake  it  is  plain,  from  the  Greek  interpreter 
of  ''St.  Hierom's  catalogue,  who  did  not  rightly  appre- 
hend St.  Hierom's  meaning,  and  who  himself  speaking 
€f  Hippolytus,  Inserts  this  passage  concerning  Ambrose 

V  ne  Cofon.  c.  13.  p.  109.        z  Epist.  XXXVII.  p.  51.       a  In  vit  Cypr.  non. 
lojiiir.ab  init.  b  H.  Eccl.  1.  5.  c.  21.  p.  189.  c  Cod.    CXXI.   ccl.   ^01. 

d  A"id.  Hieion.de  Script,  in  Hippol. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  G99 

1  know  not  how,  and  for  no  other  reason  that  I  can  ima- 
gin,  but  because  in  Eusebius's  history  he  found  it  im- 
mediately following  the  account  that  was  gi\  en  of  Hip- 
polytus's  works.     *"  Epiphanus  will  ha\'e  these  commen- 
taries written,  and  the  expenses  allowed  for  that  purpose 
by  Ambrosius  at  Tyre,  and  that  for  that  end  he   resided 
there  28  years  together.      An  intolerable    mistake,  not 
only  disagreeing  with  Eusebius's  account,  but  plainly  in- 
consistent with  the  course  of  Origen's  life.     And  indeed 
Epiphanius  alleges  no  better  author  than  «?  l  xiy®'  ?;t"»  ha- 
ving picked  up  the  story  from  some  vulgar  tradition  and 
report.     His  industry  and  diligence  in  these  studies  was 
incredible,  few  parts  of  the  bible  escaping  his  narrow  and 
critical  researches  :  wherein  he  attained  to  so  admirable 
an  accuracy  and    perfection,    that  ^  St.  Hierom   himself 
(not   always  over  civil  to  him)  professes   he   could    be 
content  to  bear  that  load  of  envy  that  was  cast  upon  his 
name,  so  that  he  had  but  withal  his  skill  and  knowledge 
in  the  scriptures.     A  passage  which  ^  Ruffinus  afterwards 
smartly  enough  returns  upon  him. 

14.  But  a  stop  for  the  present  was  put  to  this  work  by 
some  aflairs  of  the  church,  which  called  him  into  Achaia, 
then  disturbed  with  divers  heresies  that  over  ran  those 
churches.  And  at  this  time  doubtless  it  was  that  he 
stayed  awhile  at  Athens,  where  (as  ^  Epiphanius  tells  us) 
he  frequented  the  schools  of  the  philosophers,  and  con- 
versed with  the  sages  of  that  place.  In  his  journey  to 
Achaia  he  went  through  '  Palestine,  and  took  Ccesarea  in 
his  way,  where  producing  his  letters  of  recommendation 
from  Demetrius,  he  was  ordained  presbyter  by  Alexan- 
der of  Jerusalem,  and  Theoctistus,  bishop  of  C^sare?. 
Not  that  this  was  done  by  any  sinister  arts,  or  the  ambi- 
tious procurement  of  Origen  himself,  but  was  entirely 
the  act  of  those  two  excellent  persons,  who  designed  by 

eHeres  LXIV.  p.  228. 

f  Hoc  urtum  (llco,  quod  ve'.lem  cum  invidia  nominis  ejus  habere  etiam  sci- 
emiam  sci  ipUiraJum,  ttocciijeiulens  imagines  umbrasque  lavarum  :  quanim  n?.- 
tiira  esse  dici.u'-,  lerrere  puivulos,  et  ill  angnlis  garrire  teneirn.sis.  Hieron. 
trxf.  in  QiiJcst.  in  Genes.  Tom.  3.  p.  2U1, 

g"  Inveciiv.  II.  in  Hiei'on.  inter  oper.  Hier.  Tom.  4- p.  2,3.>  '<  t/bi  jnpr. 

p.  227.  i  Enscb.  loc.  cit.  Hicr.  cki  Script  in  Afex, 


400  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

this  means  to  furnish  him  with  a  greater  authority  for  the 
management  of  his  embassy,  and  to  render  him  more  ser- 
viceable  to  the  affairs  of  the  church.  However  the  thing 
was  infinitely  resented  by  Demetrius,  as  an  affront  against 
his  jurisdiction,  and  a  contempt  of  his  authority,  and  now 
the  wind  is  turned  into  a  bhistering  quarter,  and  no- 
thing but  anathemas  are  thundered  out  against  him  from 
Alexandria.  Demetrius  had  for  some  time  born  him  a  se- 
cret grudge,  and  he  takes  this  occasion  to  fall  upon  him. 
The  truth  is,  he  ^  envied  the  honour  and  reputation  which 
Origen's  learning  and  virtue  had  raised  him  in  the 
thoughts  and  mouths  of  all  men,  and  wanting  hitherto  an 
opportunity  to  vent  his  emulation,  he  had  now  one  put 
into  his  hand,  and  accordingly  charges  him  with  all  that 
spite  and  spleen  can  invent,  publicly  accusing  him  (what 
before  he  admired  in  him)  for  making  himself  an  eunuch, 
and  severely  reflecting  upon  the  bishops  that  ordained 
him.  Nay,  so  high  did  he  raise  the  storm,  that  he  pro- 
cured Origen  to  be  condemned  '  in  two  several  synods, 
one  of  bishops  and  presbyters,  who  decreed  that  he  should 
be  banished  Alexandria,  and  not  permitted  either  to  live 
or  teach  there  :  the  other  under  Demetrius,  who  with 
some  bishops  of  Egypt  pronounced  him  to  be  degraded 
from  his  priesthood,  his  greatest  favourers  subscribing 
the  decree.  "*  St.  Hierom  adds,  that  the  greatest  part  of 
the  Christian  w^orld  consented  to  this  condemnation,  and 
that  Rome  itself  convened  a  synod  against  him,  not  for 
heresy  or  innovations  in  doctrine  ;  but  merely  out  of  en- 
vy, as  not  able  to  bear  the  glory  and  renown  of  his  learn- 
ing and  eloquence  ;  seeing  while  he  taught  they  were 
looked  upon  as  mute  and  dumb,  as  the  stars  disappear  at 
the  presence  of  the  sun.  And  yet  all  this  combustion 
vanished  into  smoke,  Origen  still  retaining  his  priest- 
hood, publicly  preaching  in  the  church,  and  being  honour- 
ably entertained  wherever  he  came  by  the  wiser  and  more 
moderate  party  of  the  church. 

k  Euseb.  ib.c  8.  p.  209.  1  Panphil.  Apolosr.  np.  Phot.   Cod.  CXVIII, 

col.  297.  ir,  Apud  Ruffin.  Invect.  II.   in  ii;eroa.  inter  oper.  Hicr.   T.  4. 

p.  225. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  401 

15.  Wearied  out  with  the   vexatious  assaults  of  his 
eiiemies,  he  resolved  to  quit  Alexandria,  where  the  sen- 
tence of  the  synods  would  not  suffer  him  long  to  abide, 
having  first  resigned  the  government  of  his  catechetic 
school  entirely  to  his  colleague  Heraclas.  °     This  Hera- 
clas  was  a  Gentile  born,  brother  to  Plutarch,  who  (as  be- 
fore we  noted)  suffered  martyrdom  for  the  faith,  together 
with  whom  he  became  Origen's  scholar,  by  whom  he  was 
converted,  and  built  up  in  the  faith,  then  taken  in  as  his 
usher  or  partner  in  the  catechetic  office,   afterwards  his 
successor,  and  last  of  all  bishop  of  Alexandria.     A  man 
of  unwearied  diligence  and  a  strict  life  ;  learned  and  elo- 
quent, a  great  master  in  philosophy  and  all  human,  but 
especially  versed  in  divine,  studies.  He  retained  his  phi- 
losophic habit  even  after  he  was  made  presbyter  of  Alex- 
andria, and  ceased  not  with  a  mighty  industry  still  to  read 
over  and  converse  with  the  writings  of  the  Gentiles  ;  in- 
deed arrived  to  that  singular  fame  and  reputation,  that 
Julius  Africanus,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  those 
times  came  °  on  purpose  to  Alexandria  to  see   and  hear 
him.     No  wonder,  therefore,  if  Origin  committed  this 
great  care  and  trust  to  him,  whose  personal   merit,   and 
particular  obligation  as  his  scholar,  might  seem  to   chal- 
lenge it.     Before  his  departure  (for  they  that  refer  it  to 
the  time  ofDecius,  speak  at  random,  Origen  not  being 
then  at  Alexandria)  an  accident  fell  out,  which  (if  true) 
hastened  his  flight  with  more  shame  and  sorrow  than  all 
the  malice  of  his   bitterest   enemies   could  create  him. 
Thus  then  we  are  told  ;  ^  some   Gentiles  that  were  his 
mortal  enemies,  seized  upon  him,  and   reduced  him   to 
this  strait,  that  either  he  should  abuse   his  body  with  a 
Blackmoor,  or  do  sacrifice  to  an  idol.      Of  the  two  he 
chose  to  sacrifice,  though  it  was  rather  their  act  than  his, 
for  putting  frankincense  into  his  hand,  they  led  him  up 
to  the  altar,   and  forced  him  to  throw  it  into  the  fire. 
Which  yet  drew  so  great  a  blot  upon  his  name,  and  de- 
rived so  much  guilt  upon  his  conscience,  that  not  able  to 

n  Euseb.  ib.  c.  26.  p.  228.  o  Ibid.  c.  31.  p.  230,  p  Epiph.  ubi 

sup.  p.  228,  Leont.  de  Sect.  Act.  X.p. 

3    E 


402  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

bear  the  public  reproach,  he  immediately  left  the  city. 
The  credit  of  this  story  is  not  a  little  shaken  by  the  iinj- 
versal  silence  of  the  more  ancient  m  riters  in  this  matter, 
not  so  much  as  intimated  by  Eusebius,  Pamphilus,  oi" 
Origin's  own  contemporary,  Dionysius  of  Alexandria  ; 
not  objected  by  his  greatest  adversaries,  as  is  plain  from 
the  apologies  written  in  his  behalf ;  not  mentioned  by 
Porphyry  who  lived  in  those  times,  and  whom  we  can- 
not suppose  either  to  have  been  ignorant  of  it,  or  willing 
to  conceal  it,  when  we  find  him  falsely  reporting  of  Am- 
monius,  that  he  apostatized  from  Christianity,  and  of 
Origen  himself,  that  he  was  born  and  bred  a  heathen. 
In  short,  not  mentioned  by  any  before  Epiphanius,  and 
besides  him,  not  by  any  else  of  that  time,  not  St.  Hie- 
rom,  Rufinus,  \'^incentius  Lerinensis,  or  Theophilus  of 
Alexandria,  some  of  whom  were  enemies  enough  to  Ori- 
gen. So  that  it  was  not  without  some  plausibility  of 
reason  that ''  Baronius  suspected  this  passage  to  have  been 
foisted  into  Epiphanius,  and  not  to  have  been  the  genu- 
ine issue  of  his  pen.  Though  in  my  mind  Epiphanius 
himself  says  enough  to  make  any  wise  man  ready  to  sus- 
pend his  belief ;  for  he  tells ""  us,  that  many  strange 
things  were  reported  concerning  Origen,  which  he  him- 
self gave  no  credit  to,  though  hethought  good  to  set  down 
the  reports  ;  and  how  often  he  catches  up  any  common, 
rumours  and  builds  upon  them,  none  need  be  told  that 
are  acquainted  with  his  writings.  Nor  is  it  likely  he 
w-ould  baulk  any  story  that  tended  to  Origen's  disgrace, 
who  had  himself  so  bitter  a  zeal  and  spleen  against  him. 
I  might  further  argue  the  improbability  of  this  story  from 
hence,  that  this  being  a  long  timeafter  his  famous  emascu- 
lating oi  himself,  which  by  this  time  was  known  all  abroad, 
it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose,  diat  the  heathens  should 
make  the  prostituting  himself  in  committing  adultery  one 
part  of  his  choice,  which  his  self  contracted  impotency 
and  eunuchism  had  long  since  made  it  impossible  to  him. 
However,  supposing  the  matter  of  fact  to  be  true,  it 
sounds  not  more  (especially  considering  ho^r  much  there 

q  Ad  Aniv.  255.  n.  CZXIII.  r  Ibid.  p.  229. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  403 

was  of  force  and  compulsion  in  it)  to  his  disparagement, 
than  his  solemn  repentance  afterwards  made  for  his  ho- 
nour, and  when  the  desire  to  preserve  his  chastity  invio- 
lable is  laid  in  the  scale  with  his  offering  sacrifice. 

16.  Jnn.  CCXXXIII.  •  Origen  left  Alexandria,  and 
directing  his  course  for  Palestine,  went  to  his  good 
friend  and  patron  Theoctistus,  bishop  of  Caesarea,  and 
from  thence  to  Jerusalem  to  salute  Alexander,  bishop  of 
it,  and  to  visit  the  venerable  antiquities  of  that  place.... 
And  here  Epiphanius  in  pursuance  of  the  foregoing  story- 
tells us,  that  being  mightily  importuned  to  preach,  he 
stood  up  in  the  congregation,  and  having  pronounced 
those  words  of  penitent  David,  But  unto  the  wicked  God 
saith^  what  hast  thou  to  do  to  declare  my  statutes^  and  that 
thou  shouldest  take  my  cave?iant  in  thy  mouth  ?  he  could 
go  on  no  further,  but  shut  the  book,  and  laid  it  down^ 
and  sitting  down  burst  out  into  sighs  and  tears,  the 
whole  congregation  bearing  part  with  him  in  that  mourn- 
ful scene.  And  to  carry  on  the  humour,  and  make  the 
story  more  complete,  after  ages  present  us  with  a  '  dis- 
course under  his  name,  called  Origen's  Complaint, 
wherein  he  passionatejy  resents  and  laments  his  fall,  as  a 
desperate  wound  to  himself,  a  grief  to  good  men,  and  an 
inconceivable  dishonour  to  God,  and  to  religion.  And 
pity  it  is,  if  the  story  be  true,  that  this  lamentation  Avere 
not  genuine  ;  but  as  it  is,  the  best  ground  it  has  to  sup- 
port itself  is,  that  it  is  calculated  to  gratify  a  pious  fan- 
cy and  a  melting  passion,  there  being  nothing  in  it  other- 
wise worthy  of  this  great  man,  and  I  fear  was  first  de- 
signed by  him  that  made  it,  as  a  reflection  upon  him,  and 
to  give  countenance  to  the  report  that  was  raised  con- 
cerning him.  From  Jerusalem  he  not  long  after  return. 
ed  back  to  Caesarea,  where  (as  l3efore  he  had  done  at 
Alexandria)  he  set  up  a  "  school  both  for  divine  and  hu- 
man learning,  and  his  great  name  quickly  procured  him 
scholars  from  all  parts,  not  only  of  the  country  there- 
abouts, but  from  the  remotest  provinces.  Among  which 

s  Euseb.  ib.  c.  26.  p.  228.  t  Extat  inter  Oper.  On.G:.  Tom.  1-  p.  752. 

Edit.  Erasm.  u  Id.  ibid.  c.  ^50.  p.  229. 


404  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN". 

of  most  remark  were  Gregory,  called  afterwards  Thau- 
malurgus,  and  his  brother  Athenodorus,  who  leaving  the 
study  of  the  law,  as  being  more  delighted  with  philosophy 
and  humane  arts,  committed  themselves  to  his  conduct 
and  tutorage,  who  first  instructed  them  in  philosophy, 
and  then  trained  them  up  to  a  more  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  Christian  faith.  Five  years  they  remained  under 
his  discipline,  when  being  sufficiently  enriched  with  the 
knowledge  of  religion,  they  returned  into  Pontus,  their 
own  country,  where  they  both  became  bishops,  and 
proved  eminent  lights  and  governors  of  the  church.... 
During  his  residence  at  Cassarea,  there  was  a  firm  inti- 
macy and  league  "^  of  friendship  contracted  between  Ori- 
^G:n  and  Firmilian,  bishop  of  Cassarea  in  Cappadocia, 
who  had  so  great  a  kindness  for  him  that  sometimes  he 
would  prevail  with  him  to  come  over  into  that  province 
for  the  edification  of  the  churches  in  those  parts,  some- 
times he  himself  would  go  into  Judaea  to  visit  him,  and 
stay  a  considerable  while  with  him  to  perfect  himself  by 
his  society  and  converse.  This  Firmilian  was  a  gentle- 
man of  Cappadocia,  afterwards  made  bishop  of  Caesarea 
in  that  country.  A  person  of  great  name  and  note,  and 
who  held  correspondence  with  most  of  the  eminent  men 
of  those  times.  Few  considerable  affairs  of  the  church, 
wherein  he  was  not  concerned  either  by  his  presence  or 
advice.  Great  contests  were  between  him  and  Stephen, 
bishop  of  Rome,  concerning  the  baptism  of  heretical  per- 
sons, wherein  he  took  part  with  Cyprian.  He  was  twice 
at  Antioch  to  examine  the  case  of  Paul  of  Samosata, 
bishop  of  that  church,  and  coming  a  third  time  to  a  synod 
convened  there  for  that  purpose,  died  at  Tarsus  by  the 
way.  Nor  was  Origen  admired  and  courted  only  by 
foreigners  and  young  men  who  had  been  his  scholars, 
but  by  the  grave  and  the  wise  at  home  :  both  Alexander 
and  Theoctistus,  though  ancient  bishops,  did  not  dis- 
dain in  a  manner  to  become  his  disciples,  committing  to 
his  single  care  the  power  of  interpreting  the  holy  scrip- 
tures, and  whatever  concerned  the  ecclesiastical  doc- 
trine, 

vibid.c.sr.  p.  28. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  405 

17.  It  was  now  about  the  year  CCXXXV.  when 
Maximinus,  the  Thracian  succeeded  in  the  empire :  a 
man  fierce  and  ill-natured,  and  according  to  his  educa- 
tion brutish  and  cruel.  He  hated  whatever  had  relation 
to  his  predecessor,  and  rbecause  the  "^  Christians  had 
found  some  favourable  entertainment  in  his  family,  he 
i)egan  first  with  them,  and  especially  the  bishops,  as  the 
chief  pillars  and  promoters  of  their  religion,  whom  he 
every  where  commanded  to  be  put  to  death.  To  con- 
tribute toward  the  consolation  of  Christians  in  this  evil 
time,  Origen  wrote  his  book  concerning  martyrdom'^, 
which  he  jointly  dedicated  to  his  dear  Ambiosius,  and  to 
Protoctetus,  presbyter  of  Csesarea,  as  who  had  undergone 
a  joint  share  of  imprisonment  and  sufferings  under  the 
present  persecution,  and  had  made  a  glorious  and  illus- 
trious confession  of  the  Christian  faith.  As  for  Origen 
himself,  he  is  said  to  have  taken  sanctuary  in  the  house 
of  Juliana,  a  wealthy  and  charitable  lady,  who  courteous- 
ly entertained  him,  and  furnished  him  with  books  useful 
for  him,  particularly  with  Symmachus's  ^  version  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  his  Commentaries  in  defence  of  the 
Ebionites,  particularly  levelled  against  St.  Matthew's 
Gospel,  books  which  Juliana  enjoyed  as  by  right  of  in- 
heritance devolved  upon  her. 

18.  While  he  enjoyed  the  happy  opportunity  of  this 
retirement,  he  more  directly  applied  himself  to  what  he 
had  long  since  designed,  the  collecting  and  collating  the 
several  editions  and  versions  of  the  Old  Testament  with 
the  original  text,  which  he  finished  by  three  several 
parts'",  the  Tetrapla,  the  Hexapla,  and  the  Octapla.  In 
the  first  (which  considered  as  a  distinct  part,  was  made 
last)  where  four  translations,  set  one  over  against  another, 
that  of  Aquila,  Symmachus,  the  Septuagint,  and  Theodo- 
tion ;  these  made  up  the  Tetrapla.     In  the  second  were 

w  Id.  ibid.  c.  28. 

iB'^oaycv  Tli;  iTi  iytfx.0]ia.(  i,  ^ij-/x«7c,  hit  huto;  to;  ^ufATofiu^us,  ttu'Tis]Q(it(Sa  j,  s-5//st  5 
TO0isLV.  j  QitiTu  rvva.ym^il'^n  dvTa  Tifmri»i.r)(]i-  x,  Quy.y.a.fTv^^lv  if*h,  toJc  ayarryxpiv-t 
Td,-j^t^ii/xaCi±  Ttt'V  TTitCii/nxrcev  Tn  XpiysT,  Quv  ifxiv  yivmo-t  \ti  t  TragiS'uvo'i  th  €)s»- 
OrigExhort.  ad  Martyr,  p.  200.  y  Euseb.  ib.  c.  17.  p.  218. 

z  Id  ibid.  c.  16.  p.  217.  Epiph.  loc.  supr.  citat.  de  ponder,  i  mensur.  p.  m. 
534, 539.  Hier.  de  Script,  in  Orig^.  h  Suid,  in  voc.  Orig. 


4Pj6  the  life  of  ORIGEN. 

these  four  versions  disposed  in  the  same  order,  and  two 
other  columns  set  before  them,  thus  ;  first  the  Hebrew 
text  in  its  own  letters,  then  in  a  column  next  adjoining 
the  same  Hebrew  text  in  Greek  characters,  that  they 
who  were  strangers  to  the  one,  might  be  able  to  read  the 
other :  next  followed  the  several  versions  of  Aquila, 
Symmachus,  the  Septuagint,  and  Theodotion.  And 
these  constituted  the  Hexapla.  Where  the  Septuagint 
being  placed  after  that  of  Aquila  and  Symmachus,  gave 
some  ignorant  undiscerning  persons  occasion  to  think, 
that  it  had  been  made  after  the  two  former  :  whereas  it 
was  placed  in  the  middle  (as  Epiphanius  "^  informs  us) 
only  as  a  standard,  by  which  the  goodness  and  sincerity 
of  the  rest  were  to  be  tried  and  judged.  In  the  third, 
which  made  the  Octapla,  were  all  that  were  in  the  former, 
and  in  the  same  manner,  and  two  more  versions  added 
at  the  end  of  them,  one  called  thtjift/i  edition,  found  by 
a  student  iit  Jerusalem,  iii  a  hogshead  at  Jericho,  in  the 
time  of  the  emperor  Caracalla ;  and  another  styled  the 
sixth  edition,  found  by  one  of  Origen's  scholars  at  Nico- 
polis  near  Actium,  in  the  reign  qf  Alexander  Severus. 
All  which  in  the  Octapla  wei'C  disposed  in  several  co- 
lumns in  this  order  :  in  the  first  column  was  the  original 
Hebrew,  in  its  native  characters,  in  the  next  the  Hebrew 
in  Greek  letters,  in  the  third  the  translation  of  Aquila, 
then  that  of  Symmachus,  next  the  Septuagint,  in  the 
sixth  that  of  Theodotion,  and  in  the  two  last  that  of  Jeri- 
cho, and  the  other  of  Nicopolis.  Indeed  plain  it  is  from 
what ""  St.  Hierom  tells  us,  that  these  two  last  were  not 
complete  and  entire  translations,  but  contained  only  some 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  especially  the  prophetical 
books.  But  whether  from  hence  we  may  conclude  the 
Hexapla  and  the  Octapla  to  have  been  but  one  and  the 
same  work,  only  receiving  its  different  title  according  to 
those  parts  that  had  these  two  last  versions  annexed  to 
them,  I  will  not  say.  Besides  these  there  was  a  seventh 
edition  ;  but  this  belonging  only  to  the  book  of  Psalms, 
made  no  alteration  in  the  title  of  the  whole. 

a  Ibid.  p.  529.  b  Comment;  in  Tit  c.  3.  p.  256.  T.  9. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  4fe>r 

And  to  make  the  work  more  complete  and  useful,  he  distin- 
guished the  additions  and  deficiences  by  several  marks% 
where  any  thing  had  been  added  by  the  LXX.  besides  tlie 
faith  of  the  original  text,  he  prefixed  an  obelus  before  it ; 
where  any  thing  was  wanting,  Avhich  yet  was  in  the  He- 
brew, he  inserted  the  words  with  an  asteric,  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  rest  of  the  Septaugint  translation.  Where 
various  leetions  were  confirmed  by  the  greater  number 
of  translations,  he  added  a  note  called  Lemniscus,  where 
two  of  them  only  concurred,  an  Hypolemniscus.  By 
which  means  he  did  ris:ht  to  truth,  without  doin?^:  wronir 
to  any.  A  work  of  infinite  labour  and  admirable  use,  and 
which  was  therefore  peculiarly  styled  by  the  ancients 
Opus  Ecclesics^  the  work  of  the  church,  upon  the  account 
whereof  St.  Hierom'^calls  him  Immortale  illud  ingejuum, 
as  indeed  had  there  been  nothing  else,  this  alone  had 
been  sufficient  to  have  eternized  his  name,  and  to  have 
rendered  him  memorable  to  posterity  :  and  how  happy 
had  it  been,  had  it  been  preserved,  the  loss  whereof  I 
can  attribute  to  nothing  more  than  the  pains  and  charge, 
the  trouble  and  difiiculty  of  transcribing  it.  Though 
some  part  of  it,  viz.  the  Septuagint  was  taken  out,  and 
published  more  exact  and  correct  from  the  faults  which 
had  crept  into  it  by  transcribing  by  Eusebius  and  Pam- 
philus  afterwards.  It  was  a  work  of  time,  and  not  finish- 
ed b}'  Origen  all  at  once,  begun  by  him  at  Ccesarea,  and 
perfected  at  Tyre,  as  Epiphanius  plainly  intimates. 

19.  From  Ceesarea  Origen,  upon  what  occasion  I  know 
not,  seems  to  have  taken  a  second  journey  to  Athens. 
For  during  his  stay  there,  we  find  him  finishing  his  com- 
mentaries, *"upon  Ezekiel,  and  beginning  his  exposition 
upon  the  Canticles,  five  books  whereof  he  there  perfect- 
ed, making  an  end  of  the  rest  at  his  return  to  Ccesarea. 
The  opportunity  of  this  journey,  it  is  conceived  by  some, 
he  took  to  go  to  Nicomedia,  to  visit  his  friend  Ambro- 
sius,  who  with  his  wife  and  children  at  that  time  resid- 

c  Vid.  prseler  script,  citat.  Orijj.  Comment  in  Mattb.  Edit.  Huct.  gr.  \.  \\. 
381.  &  Resp.  ad  Epist.  Afric.  p.  226,  227.  Edit.  Basil,  vid.  Ruffiii.  Invect,  II. 
in  Hieron.  inter  opcr.  llier.  T.  4.  p.  230. 

d  InTit.loc.  supr.  cit.        e  Euseb.ib.  c.  32.  p.  231. 


408  THE    LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

ed  there.  While  he  continued  here  (which  was  not  long) 
he  returned  an  answer  to  the  letter  which  he  had  lately 
received  from  Julius  Africanus  concerning  the  history 
of  Susanna,  which  Africanus  by  short  but  very  forcible 
arguments  maintained  to  be  a  fictitious  and  spurious  re- 
lation. Origen  undertakes  the  case,  and  justifies  the 
story  to  be  sincere  and  genuine,  but  by  arguments, 
which  rather  manifest  the  acuteness  of  his  parts,  than  the 
goodness  of  his  cause,  and  clearly  show  how  much  men 
of  the  greatest  learning  and  abilities  are  put  to  it,  when 
engaged  to  uphold  a  weak  side,  and  which  has  no  truth 
of  its  own  to  support  itself.  It  happened  about  this 
time  that  Beryllus,  ^bishop  of  Bostra  in  Arabia  fell 
into  absurd  and  dangerous  errors,  asserting,  that  our 
lord  before  his  incarnation  had  no  proper  subsistence, 
no  personal  deity,  but  only  a  derivative  divinity  from 
his  father.  The  bishops  of  those  parts  met  about  it, 
but  could  not  reclaim  the  man,  whereupon  Origen's 
assistance  was  requested,  who  went  thither,  and  treated 
with  him  both  in  private  conferences  and  in  public  sy- 
nods. His  greatest  difficulty  was  to  know  what  the  man 
meant,  which  when  he  had  once  found  out,  he  plied  him 
so  hard  with  cogent  reasonings  and  demonstrations,  that 
he  was  forced  to  let  go  his  hold,  recant  his  errors,  and 
return  back  into  the  way  of  truth.  Which  done,  Ori- 
gen took  his  leave,  and  came  back  for  Palestine.  And 
Beryllus^,  as  became  a  true  convert,  in  several  letters 
gave  thanks  to  Origen  for  his  kind  pains  in  his  convic- 
tion, kissing  the  hand  that  brought  him  back. 

20.  Origen  was  now  advanced''  above  the  age  of  three- 
score, and  yet  remitted  nothing  of  his  incredible  indus- 
try either  in  preaching  or  writing.  At  Ambrosius's 
intreaty  he  took  to  task  Celsus's  book  against  the 
Christians.  This  Celsus  was  an  epicurean  philosopher, 
contemporary  with  Lucian,  the  witty  Atheist,  who  de- 
dicated his  pseudomantis  to  him,  as  indeed  there  seems 
to  have  been  a  more  than  ordinary  sympathy  of  humour 
and  genius  between  these    two  persons.     Celsus  was  a 

f  Ibid.  c.  33.        g  Hieron.dc  Script,  iu  Ben  11.     h  Eus.  Ibid.  c.  35.  p. 23;?. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  409 

man  of  wit  and  parts,  and  had  all  the  advantages  which 
learnint^,  philosophy,  and  eloquence  could  add  to  him  ; 
but  a  severe  and  incurable  enemy  to  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, against  which  he  wrote  a  book  entitled  a?,»,s^«c  w>®- 
or  the  true  discourse^  wherein  he  attempted  Christianity 
with  all  the  arts  of  insinuation,' all  the  witty  reflections, 
virulent  aspersions,  plausible  reasonings,  wherewith  a 
man  of  parts  and  malice  was  capable  to  assault  it.  To 
thisOrigen  returns  a  full  and  solid  answer  in  eight  books, 
wherein  as  he  had  the  better  cause,  so  he  managed  it 
with  that  strength  of  reason,  clearness  of  argument,  an 
convictive  evidence  of  truth,  that  were  there  nothing 
else  to  testify  the  abilities  of  this  great  man,  this  book 
alone  were  enough  to  do  it.  It  was  written  probably 
about  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Philip  the  emperor, 
with  whom  Origen  seems  to  have  had  some  acquaintance, 
who  wrote'  one  letter  to  him,  and  another  to  the  empress. 
From  whence,  and  some  other  little  probabilities,  Eu- 
sebius  first,  and  after  him  the  generality  of  Ecclesiastie 
writers,  have  made  that  emperor  to  have  been  a  Chris- 
tian, and  the  first  of  the  imperial  line  that  was  so.  The 
vanity  of  which  mistake,  and  the  original  from  whence 
it  sprung,  we  have  showed  elsewhere.  Nor  is  the  mat- 
ter mended  by  those  who  say  that  Philip  was  privately 
baptized  by  Fabian  bishop  of  Rome,  and  so  his  Chris- 
tian profession  was  known  only  to  the  Christians,  but 
concealed  from  the  Gentiles ;  which  being  but  a  conjec- 
ture, and  a  gratis  dictum^  without  any  authority  to  con- 
firm it,  may  with  the  same  ease  and  as  much  justice  be 
rejected,  as  it  is  obtruded  and  imposed  upon  us.  Nor  has 
the  late  learned  publisher  ''of  some  tracts  of  Origen  (who 
in  order  to  the  securing  the  dialogue  against  the  Marcio- 
nites  to  belong  to  Origen,  has  newly  enforced  this  argu- 
ment) said  any  thing  that  may  persuade  a  w^ise  man  to 
believe  a  story,  so  improbable  in  all  its  circumstances, 
and  which  must  have  made  a  louder  noise  in  the  world, 
and  have  had  more  and  better  witnesses  to  attest  it,  than 

i  Id.  if/id.  p.  233.         k  Rod.  Wetsteinius  Pr.T.f;.t.  in  Otig-.  DL-\l  coiV.  Marc. 
&c,  a  se  Ldli.  Basil.  16;4.  \. 

3  f 


410  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

an  obscure  anduncertain  report,  the  only  authority  which 
Eusebius,  who  gave  the  first  hint  of  it,  pretends  in  this 
matter. 

21.  The  good  success  which  Origen  lately  had  in 
Arabia  in  the  cause  of  Beryllus  made  him  famous  in  all 
those  parts,  and  his  help  was  now  again  'desired  upon  a 
like  occasion.  For  a  sort  of  heretics  were  started  up,  who 
affirmed,  that  at  death  both  body  and  soul  did  expire  to- 
gether, and  were  resolved  into  the  same  state  of  corrup- 
tion, and  that  at  the  resurrection  they  should  revive  and 
rise  together  to  eternal  life.  For  this  purpose  a  gene- 
ral synod  of  those  parts  w^as  called,  and  Origen  desired 
to  be  present  at  it,  who  managed  the  cause  with  such 
weighty  arguments,  such  unanswerable  and  clear  con- 
victions, that  the  adverse  party  threw  down  their  wea- 
pons, and  relinquished  the  sentiments  which  they  main- 
tained before.  Another  heretical  crew  appeared  at  this 
time  in  the  east,  the  impious  and  abominable  sect  of  the 
Helcesaitse,  against  whom  also  Origen  seems  to  have 
been  engaged,  concerning  whom  himself  "'gives  us  this 
account.  They  rejected  a  great  part  both  of  the  old  and 
new  canon,  making  use  onl}^  of  some  few  parts  of  scrip- 
ture, and  such  without  question  as  they  could  make 
look  most  favourably  upon  their  cause.  St.  Paul  they 
ivholly  rejected,  and  held  that  it  was  lawful  and  indiffer- 
ent to  deny  the  faith ;  and  that  he  was  the  wise  man, 
that  in  his  words  would  renounce  Christianity  in  a  time 
of  danger  and  persecution,  but  maintain  the  truth  in  his 
heart.  They  carried  a  book  about  with  them  which 
they  affirmed  to  have  been  immediately  dropped  down 
from  heaven,  which  whoever  received  and  gave  credit 
to,  should  receive  remission  of  sins,  though  different 
from  that  pardon  which  our  Lord  Jesus  bestowed  upon 
his  followers.  But  how  far  Origen  was  concerned  against 
this  absurd  and  senseless  generation,  is  to  me  unknown. 
The  best  of  it  is,  this  sect,  like  a  blazing  comet,  though 
Us  influence  was  malignant  and  pestilential,  suddenly 
arose,  and  as  suddenly  disappeared. 

1  Ibid.  c.  27.        m  Homll.  in  Psai.  82.  ap.  Euseb.ibid.  c.  38.  p.  233. 


THE  LIFE    OF  ORIGEN.  411 

22.  Philip,  the  emperor,  being  slain  by  the  soldiers, 
Decius  made  a  shift  by  the  help  of  the  army  to  step  into 
the  throne  ;  a  mortal  enemy  to  the  "  church,  in  whose 
short  reign  more  martyrs,  especially  men  of  note  and 
eminency  came  to  the  stake,  than  in  those  who  governed 
that  empire  ten  times  his  reign.  In  Palestine  Alex- 
ander, the  aged  and  venerable  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  was 
thrown  into  prison,  where,  after  long  and  hard  usage,  and 
an  illustrious  confession  of  the  Christian  faith  before  the 
public  tribunal,  he  died.  This  Alexander  (whom  we 
have  often  mentioned)  had  been  first  bishop  in  Cappado- 
cia,  °  where  out  of  a  religious  curiosity  he  had  resolved 
upon  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  to  visit  the  holy  aiid  ve- 
nerable antiquities  of  that  place,  whereto  he  was  particu- 
larly excited  by  a  divine  revelation  intimating  to  him  that 
it  was  the  will  of  God  that  he  should  be  assistant  to  the 
bishop  of  that  place.  It  happened  at  this  time  that  Nar- 
cissus, bishop  of  Jerusalem,  being  some  years  since  re- 
turned to  his  see  (which  he  had  deserted  many  years  be- 
fore)  was  become  incapable  through  his  great  age  and  in- 
firmity (being  116  years  old)  duly  to  manage  his  charge. 
Alexander  approaching  near  Jerusalem,  they  were  warn- 
ed by  a  vision  and  a  voice  from  heaven,  to  go  out  of  the 
city,  and  there  receive  K^m  whom  heaven  had  designed 
to  be  their  bishop.  They  did  so,  and  finding  Alexander, 
entertained  and  introduced  him  with  all  possible  kindness 
and  respect,  where,  by  the  importunity  of  the  people,  and 
the  consent  of  all  the  neighbour  bishops,  he  was  con- 
strained to  become  colleague  with  Narcissus  in  the  go- 
vernment  of  that  church.  This  I  suppose  is  the  first  ex- 
press instance  that  we  meet  with  in  church  antiquity  of 
two  bishops  sitting  at  once  (and  that  by  consent)  in  one 
see.  But  the  case  was  warranted  by  an  extraordinary 
authority  ;  besides  that.  Narcissus  seems  rather  to  have 
resigned  and  quitted  the  place,  retaining  nothing  but  the 
title,  nor  intermeddling  any  further,  than  by  joining  in 
prayers  and  devotions  for  the  good  of  the  church,  survi- 
ving not  above  three  or  four  years  at  most.     Alexander 

o   Ibid  c  39  p.  234.  o  Ibid  c.  11.  p.  212. 


412  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

succeeding  in  the  sole  presidency,  governed  his  church 
with  singular  prudence  and  fidelity,  and  among  other 
memorable  acts,  erected  a  library  at  Jerusalem,  ^  which 
he  especially  stored  with  ecclesiastical  epistles  and  re- 
cords, from  whence  Eusebius  confesses  he  furnished 
himself  with  many  considerable  memoirs  and  materials 
for  the  composing  of  his  history.  He  sat  bishop  39 
years,  and  after  several  arraignments  and  various  impri- 
sonments and  sufferings,  died  now  in  prison  at  Caesarea, 
to  the  inconceivable  loss  and  resentment  of  the  whole 
church,  and  especially  of  Origen,  who  had  been  ordained 
by  him,  and  whom  he  had  ever  found  a  fast  friend  and 
patron.  Nor  did  Origen  himself,  who  was  at  this  time 
at  Tyre,  escape  without  his  share.  Eusebius  does  but 
briefly  intimate  his  sufi'erings,  having  given  a  larger  ac- 
count of  them  in  another  book,  long  since  lost,  he  tells  ** 
us  that  the  devil  mustered  up  all  his  forces  against  him, 
and  assaulted  him  with  all  his  arts  and  engines,  singling 
him  out  above  all  others  of  that  time  to  make  him  the 
objeci  of  his  utmost  rage  and  fury.  He  w-as  cast  into  the 
bottom  of  a  loathsome  and  uncomfortable  dungeon,  loa- 
ded with  irons,  a  chain  about  his  neck,  his  feet  set  in  the 
stocks,  with  hi3  legs  stretched  four  holes  distant  from 
each  other  many  days  together  ;  he  was  threatened  with 
lire,  and  tried  with  all  the  torments  that  a  merciless  ene- 
my could  inflict.  Which  meeting  with  a  person  of  his 
age,  and  a  body  broken  with  such  and  so  many  cares  and 
labours,  must  needs  render  it  a  very  heavy  burden.  And 
yet  he  bore  all  w^ith  a  generous  patience,  and  was  ready 
to  submit  to  the  last  fatal  stroke,  but  that  the  judge  to 
give  all  possible  accents  to  his  misery,  ordered  them  so 
to  torment  him,  that  they  should  not  kill  him. 

23.  Human  councils  and  resolutions,  when  most  ac- 
tive and  violent,  yet  he  that  is  higher  than  the  highest  can 
overrule  them,  and  there  be  that  are  higher  than  they. 
His  enemies  had  hitherto  exercised  him  only  w  ith  prepa- 
rator)"  cruelties,  reserving  him  for  a  more  solemn  execu- 
tion.    But  God,  to  xvhom  belongs  the  issues  from  death, 

p  Ibid.  c.  20.  p.  222.  q  Ubi  supr.  p.  234. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  413 

prevented  tlieir  malice,  and  made  way  for  him  to  escape, 
which  in  all  probability  was  effected  by  the  death  of  De- 
cius,  who  was  cut  off,  when  he  had  reigned  two  years  and 
an  half.      Being  delivered  out   of  prison,  •■  he  improved 
his  time  to  pious  purposes,  comforting  tlie  weak  and  the 
disconsolate,  and  writing  letters  to  that  end  up  and  down 
the  world.     Some  fe^v  years  he  out-lived  the  Decian  per- 
secution, and  died  at  Tyre  about  the  first  year  of  V'aleri- 
an.     Indeed  Eusebius  intimates  that  he  departed  this  life 
about  the  beginning  of  Gallus's  reign.     But  I  cannot  see 
how  that  can  stand  :  for  seeing  elsewhere  he  positively 
affirms  that  he  was  seventeen  years  old  at  the  time  of  his 
father's  martyrdom,    Ann.  CCII.  his  death  must  happen 
the  first  of  Valerian,  Ann.  Chr.  CCLIV.  which  falls  in 
with  the  69th  year  of  his  age,    in  which  Eusebius    tells 
us  he  left  this  world.     Otherwise  he  could  not  be  more 
than  67  years  old,  whereas  none  make  him  less  than  69. 
Pamphilus  '  the  martyr,  and  some  others,  from  the  rela- 
tion of  those  that  had  seen  him,  reports  that  an  honoura- 
ble martyrdom  put  a  period  to  his  life,  when  Decius  rai- 
sed the  persecution  at  Ceesarea.     But  besides  that  *  Epi- 
phanius  expressly   denies  that  he  died  a  martyr,    others 
(as  Photius  adds,  and  among  them   Eusebius  "  and  St. 
Hierom  ^ )  tell  us,  that  he  continued  till  the  time    of  Cal- 
lus and  Volusian,  and  being  69  years  old  died,  and  was 
buried  at  Tyre.     Which,  as  he  observes,  must  needs  be 
so,  seeing  he  wrote  many  epistles  after  the   Decian  per- 
secution.    And  probable  it  is,  that  Pamphilus  meant  it, 
or  at  least  his  mistake  thence  arose,  of  that  great  and  glo- 
rious confession,  a  preparatory  martyrdom,  which  he 
made  under  the  reign  of  Decius,  which  he  survived  two 
or  three  years,  peaceably  ending  his  days  at  Tyre,  where 
his  body  found  a  place  of  rest,  and  wherein  a  great  church 
dedicated  to  the  memory  of  our  Saviour's  sepulchre,  be- 
hind the  high  altar,  his  remains  were  laid  up,  as  the  tradi- 
tion ''■  of  the  last  age  informs  us.     Nay,  long  before  that 
Brocard  "^  the  monk  tells  us  that  when  he  was  there,   he 

r  Euseb.  ibid.  p.  235.  s  Apud.  Phot.  Cod.  CZVIII.  col.  297.  t  De 

pond.  Si  niensur.  p.  539.         u  Lib.  7.  c.  1.  p.  250.         v  De  scrijit.  in  Origen. 
w  C-jtovk.  itiner.  1.  1  .c  19.  p.  121.        x  Descript.  Terr.  S.  c.  2. 


4U  THE    LIFE  OF  ORIGEX. 

saw  his  tomb,  and  read  his  epitaph  ;  and  before  both  ^ 
William,  who  was  himself  archbishop  of  Tyre,  reckons 
Origen's  tomb  among  the  monuments  and  venerable  an- 
tiquities of  that  city,  his  marble  monument  being  adorn- 
ed with  gold  and  precious  stones. 

24.  Having  thus  brought  this  great  man  to  his  grave, 
let  us  a  little  look  back  upon  him,  and  we  shall  find  him  a 
more  than  ordinar}-  person.    His  life  was  truly  strict  and 
philosophical,  ^  and  an  admirable   instance  of  discipline 
and  virtue ;  such  as  his  discourses  were,  such  were  his 
manners,  and  his   life  the  image  of  his  mind  :  that  wise 
and  good  man,  whom  he  was  wont  to  describe  in  his  lec- 
tures to  his  scholars  (as  one  ^  of  the  most  eminent  of  them 
assures  us)  he  himself  had  first  formed,  and  drawn  in  the 
example  of  his  own  life.     He  had  a  mighty  regard  to  the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  good  of  souls,  whose  happiness  he 
studied  by  all  ways   to  promote,    and   thought   nothing 
hard,  nothing  mean  or  servile  that  might  advance  it.   He 
was  modest  and  humble,  chaste  and  temperate  ;  so  ex- 
emplary his  abstinence  and  sobriety,  that  he  lived  upon 
what  was  next  door  to  nothing,  for  many  years  *' abstain- 
ing from  wine,  and  every  thing  but  what  was   absolutely 
necessary  for  the  support  of  life,  till  by  too  much  absti- 
nence he  had  almost  ruined   his  health,   and  endangered 
the  weakening  of  nature  past  recovery.      Singular  his 
contempt  of  the  world,  literally  making  good  that  precept 
ofourLordto  his  disciples,  not  to   \y2l\'Q  txvo  cloaks^   to 
provide  no  shoes,  nor  to  be  anxiously  careful  for  to-mor- 
row.     When  many  out  of  consideration  of  his  unwearied 
diligence  would  have  communicated  part  of  what  they 
had  towards  his  necessities,  he  would  not,  but  rather  than 
be  needlessly  burdensome  to  any,  sold  hislibrary,  agree- 
ing with  the  buyer  to  allow  him  four  oboli,  or  five  pence, 
for  his  daily  maintenance.      His  diligence  in   study,  in 
preaching,    writing,   travelling,   confuting  heathens  and 
heretics,     composing    schisms   and  differences  in  the 
church  was  indefiitigable,  upon  which  account  the  titles 

y  Gailiel.  Tvr.  H.  sacr.  1.  13.  non  longe  ab  init.  vid.  etiam  Adricom.  Theatr. 
TeiT.  S.  in  Trib,  Aser.  n.  84.  in  fin.  z  Euseb.  1.  6.  c   3.  p.  205.        a  Greg-. 

JJawQ.KSii'"-  OraX.  PanegAT.  in  Orig-.  p.  205.  b  Euseb.  ib.  p.  206.. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEX.  415 

of  Adamantiusand  Chalcenterus  are  supposed  by  the 
ancients  to  have  been  given  to  him,  nothing  but  an  in- 
dustry of  brass  and  iron  being  able  to  hold  out  un- 
der such  infinite  labours.  The  day  he  spent  part  in  fast- 
ing, part  in  other  religious  exercises  and  employments  ; 
the  night  he  bestowed  upon  the  study  of  the  scripture,  re- 
serving some  little  portion  for  sleep  and  rest,  which  he 
usnally  took  not  in  bed,  but  upon  the  bare  ground.  This 
admirably  exercised  and  advanced  his  patience,  which  he 
improved  by  further  austerities,  fasting,  and  enduring 
cold  and  nakedness,  studying  standing,  and  for  many 
years  together  going  barefoot,  remitting  nothing  of  his  ri- 
gours and  hardships,  notwithstanding  all  the  counsels  and 
persuasions  of  his  friends,  who  were  troubled  at  the  ex- 
cessive severities  of  his  life.  Whereby  notwithstanding 
he  gained  upon  men,  and  converted  many  of  the  Gentile 
philosophers,  famous  for  learning  and  philosophy,  not 
only  to  the  admiration,  but  imitation  of  himself. 

25.  View  him  in  his  natural  parts  and  acquired  abili- 
ties, and  he  had  a  quick,  piercing  apprehension,  a  strong 
and  faithful  memory,  an  acute  judgment,  a  ready  utter- 
ance.  All  which  were  adorned  and  accomplished  with  a 
prodigious  furniture  of  learning,  and  all  the  improvements 
which  Rome  or  Greece  could  afford  ;  being  incompara- 
bly skilled  (as  "  St.  Hief  om  and  ^  Suidas  observes)  both 
in  Gentile  and  Christian  learning,  logic,  geometry,  arith- 
metic, music,  philosophy,  rhetoric,  and  the  several  senti- 
ments and  opinions  of  all  the  sects  of  philosophy,  and  who 
always  entertained  his  auditors  with  something  above 
common  observation.  So  great  the  force  and  acuteness 
of  his  parts  (says  Vincentius  Lerinensis  *")  so  profound, 
quick  and  elegant,  that  none  could  come  near  him  :  so 
vast  his  stock  of  all  sorts  of  learning,  that  there  were  few 
corners  of  divine,  and  perhaps  none  of  human  philosophy, 
which  he  had  not  accurately  searched  into  ;  and  when  the 
Greeks  could  lead  him  no  further,  with  an  unparalleled 
iadustrv  he  conquered  the  lano;ua8:e  and  learnins:  of  the 
Jews.     But  no  other  character  need  be  given  him  than 

c  De  script,  in  Orig-.        d  !n  Orijf-  p.  387         e  Coutx.  Ha:res.  c.  2^]  p.  35, 


416  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

what  Porphyry,  ^  who  knew  him  (though  a  learned  man,  ^ 
who  from  that  passage  in  Eusebius  makes  him  to  have 
been  his  scholar,  proceeds  doubtless  a  great  mistake) 
and  was  an  enemy,  bestows  upon  him,  that  he  was 
held  in  very  great  esteem  in  those  times,  and  had  pur- 
chased a  more  than  ordinary  glory  and  renown  from  the 
greatest  masters  which  Christianity  then  had  in  the  world, 
and  that  under  the  discipline  of  Ammonius  he  attained 
to  an  admirable  skill  in  learning  and  philosophy.  The 
monuments  and  evidences  whereof  (as  he  there  observes) 
were  the  books  and  writings  which  he  left  behind  him, 
considerable  not  for  their  subjects  only,  but  their  multi- 
tude, arising  to  that  vast  number,  that  Epiphanius  ^  tells 
us,  it  was  commonly  reported  that  he  wrote  six  thousand 
volumes  :  the  greatest  part  of  which  being  understood  of 
epistles,  and  single  homiles,  the  account  will  not  be 
above  belief,  nor  give  any  just  foundation  for  Rufinus  and 
St.  Hierom  to  wrangle  so  much  about  it,  the  latter  of 
whom  point-blank  denies,  that  ever  himself  read,  or  that 
Origen  himself  wrote  so  many.  '  Vincentius  affirms, 
that  no  man  ever  wrote  so  much  as  he,  and  that  all  his 
books  could  not  only  not  be  read,  but  not  so  much  as  be 
found  out  by  any.  So  that  it  was  not  without  reason  that 
antiquity  fastened  the  title  of  Syntacticus,  or  the  compo- 
ser upon  him,  his  innumerable  discourses  upon  all  sorts 
of  subjects  justly  appropriating  that  title  to  him.  His 
books  were  of  old  enumerated  by  man}',  and  digested  in- 
to their  proper  classes,  whether  Scholia,  short  strictures 
upon  obscure  difficult  places,  Homilies  and  Tomes,  as  the 
ancients  divided  them  ;  or  Exegetica  and  Syntagmata, 
under  whicli  rank  some  modern  writers  comprehend 
them,  the  greatest  part  whereof  though  they  have  long 
since  perished  through  the  carelessness  and  ill  will  of  suc- 
ceeding times,  yet  does  a  very  large  portion  of  them  still 
remain.  His  phrase  and  way  of  writing  is  clear  and  un- 
affected, fluent  and  copious.  ^  Erasmus  gives  a  high  en- 
comium of  it,  preferring  it  before  most  other  writers  of 

f  Ap.  Euseb.  1.  6.  c.  19.  p.  220.        g  L.  Holsten.  de  vit.  &  script.  Porphyr.  c. 
6.  p.  27.  h  Ubi.  supr.  p.  256.  vkl.  Ruffin.  Apol.  pro  Grig-,  inter  Oper.  Hicr. 

T.  4.  p  197.        i  Loc.  cltat.        k  Censur.  ile  Op*r.  Oi%. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  41  r 

the  church,  that  it  is  neither  turgid  and  lofty,  like  that  of 
St.  Hilar}-,   flying  above  the  reach  of  ordinary  readers  ; 
nor  set  oft'  with  gaudy    and  fiU'-fetched  ornaments,  like 
that  of  St.  Hierom  ;  nor  abounding  with  flowers  of  rhe- 
toric, and  smart  witty  sentences,    like  that   of  St.   Am- 
brose; nor  over-seasoned  with  tart  and  satyrical  reflec- 
tions, and  obscured  with  obsolete  and  antiquated  terms, 
as  that  of  TertuUian  ;    not  superstitious  in  the  curious 
and  accurate  structure    of  its  several  parts,  like   tliat  of 
St.  Gregory  ;  nor  running  out  into  large  digressions,  nor 
affecting  a  chiming  cadency  of  words,   like   that  of  St, 
Augustin  :  but  always    brisk  and  lively,  easy  and  natu- 
ral.    But  when  he  commends  it  for  its  conciseness  and 
brevity,  he  certainly    forgot   himself,    or   mistook   (and 
what  wonder  he  should,  when  it  is  like  he  took  his  mea^ 
sures  not  so  much  from  the  original  as  translations.)  For 
his  style  though  it  be  generally  plain  and   perspicuous^ 
yet  is  it  difibsivc  and  luxuriant,  flowing  with  plenty    of 
words,  which  might  be  often  spared,  and  therefore  char- 
ged by  some  of  his  critical  adversaries  that  he  did  iiijini- 
ta   verba   mult'iplicare^ '  multiply  an    infinite  crowd   of 
words  :  and  that  "^  «g<|u>.t7.i^  'Vii^inX'-a--^^  iT«giTx>iSu  tcv  xis-^ov,  he  filled 
the  world  wath  a  company   of  needless  and   idle  words^ 
which  he   unmeasurably    poured   out,   and  that  he  did 
<»>Aua§«=t  ^oM^M  T<ti/7<;x<s7t<i',  exceedingly  trifle   with  vain    tautolo- 
logics  and  repetitions.       A  censure  wherein  envy  and 
emulation  must  be  supposed  to  have  had  the  predomi- 
nant and  over-ruling  stroke.       For   though  abounding 
with  words,  he  was  always  ullowed  to  be  eloquent,  for 
which  Vincentius  "  highly  commends  him,  affirming  his 
phrase  to  be  so  sweet,  pleasant,  and  delightful,  that  there 
seemed  to  him  to  have  dropped  not  words  so  much  as 
honey  from  his  mouth. 

26.  But  that,  alas,  which  has  cast  clouds  and  darkness 
upon  all  his  glory,  and  buried  so  much  of  his  fame  in 
ignominy  and  reproach,  is  the  dangerous  and  unsound 
doctrines  and  principles  which  are  scattered  up  and 
down  his  writings,  for  which  almost  all  ages  without  any 

I  Epiph.  Ep.  ad  Joan.  Hierosol.ap.  Hieron.  T.  2.  p.  Ij3.  m  Eustath.  An- 
tioch.  dissert,  de  Engastt ym.  adv.  Orig-.  inter.  Crit.  S.  Tom.  8.  col.  \\\,  45S 
n  Ubi  supr. 

3   G 


418  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

reverence  to  his  parts,  learning,  piety,  and  the  judgment 
of  the  wisest  and  best  of  the  times  he  lived  in,  have  with- 
outany  mercy  pronounced  him  heretic,  and  his  sentiments 
and  speculations  rash,  absurd,  pernicious,  blasphemous, 
and  indeed  what  not.  The  alarm  began  of  old,  and  was 
pursued  with  a  mighty  clamour  and  fierceness,  especially 
by  Methodius,  bishop  of  Olympus,  Eustathius  of  Anti- 
och,  Apollinaris,  Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  and  Epipha- 
nius  ;  and  the  dry  carried  on  with  a  loud  noise  in  after- 
ages,  insomuch  that  the  very  mention  of  his  name  is  in 
the  Greek  church  abominable  at  this  day.  I  had  once 
resolved  to  have  considered  the  chief  of  those  notions 
and  principles  for  which  Origen  is  so  heavily  charged  by 
the  ancients,  but  superceded  that  labour,  when  I  found 
that  the  industry  of  the  learned  Monsieur  Huet  in  his 
Origeniana  had  left  no  room  for  any  to  come  after  him, 
so  fully,  so  clearly,  so  impartially,  with  such  infinite  va- 
riety of  reading  has  he  discussed  and  canvassed  this  mat- 
ter, and  thither  I  remit  the  learned  and  capable  reader.... 
And  for  those  that  cannot  or  will  not  be  at  the  pains  to 
read  his  large  and  excellent  discourses,  they  may  consult 
nearer  hand  theinarenious  author  oftheLetter  of  resolution 

7    •  •       •  1- 

concerning  Origen  and  the  chief  of  ms  opinions"  ;  where 
they  wiirfind  the  most  obnoxious  of  his  dogmata  reck- 
oned up,  and  the  apologies  and  defences  which  a  sincere 
lover  of  Origen  might  be  supposed  to  make  in  his  be- 
half, and  these  pleas  represented  with  all  the  advantages 
with  which  wit,  reason,  and  eloquence   could  set  them 

off. 

27.  Nor  wanted  there  of  old  those  who  stood  up  to 
plead  and  defend  his  cause,  especially  Pamphilus  the 
martyr,  and  Eusebius  who  published  an  apology  in  six 
books  in  his  behalf;  the  first  five  whereof  were  written  by 
Pamphilus  with  Eusebius's  assistance,  while  they  were 
in  prison,  the  last  finished  and  added  by  Eusebius  after 
the  other's  martyrdom.  Besides  which,  *'  Photius  tells 
us  there  were  many  other  fimious  men  in  those  times, 
Mho  wrote  apologies  for  him,  he   gives  us  a  particular 

,  0  Edit.  Lond.  1661.  4.  p'Cod.  CXVIII.  col.  297. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  419 

account  ^  of  one,  though  without  a  name,  where  in  five 
books  the  author  endeavours  to  justify  Origen  as  sound 
and  orthodox,  and  cites  Dionysius,  Demetrius,  and  Cle- 
mens, all  of  Alexandria,  and  several  others  to  give  in 
evidence  for  him.  The  main  of  these  apologies  are  pe- 
rished long  ago,  otherwise  probably  Origen's  cause 
might  appear  with  a  better  face,  seeing  we  have  now 
nothing  but  his  notions  dressed  up  and  glossed  by  his 
professed  enemies,  and  many  things  ascribed  to  him 
which  he  never  owned,  but  were  coined  by  his  pretend- 
ed followers.  For  my  own  part,  I  shall  only  note  from 
the  ancients  some  general  remarks,  which  may  be  plead- 
ed in  abatement  of  the  rigour  and  severity  of  the  sentence 
usually  passed  upon  him.  And  Jirst,  many  things  were 
said  and  written  by  him,  not  positively  and  dogmatically, 
hut  yj/^mrUi x^^'^'  says  the 'author  of  his  apology  in  Pho- 
tius,  by  way  of  exercitation ;  and  this  he  himself  was 
wont  to  plead  at  every  turn,  and  to  beg  the  reader's  par- 
don, and  profess  that  he  propounded  these  things  not  as 
doctrines,  but  as  disputable  problems,  and  with  a  design 
to  search  and  find  out  the  truth,  as  '  Pamphilus  assures 
us,  and  St.  Hierom  himself  *  cannot  but  confess  :  and  if 
we  had  the  testimony  of  neither,  there  is  enough  to  this 
purpose  m  his  books  still  extant,  to  put  it  beyond  all  just 
exception.  Thus  discoursing  concerning  the  union  of 
the  two  natures  in  the  person  of  our  blessed  Saviour,  he 
affirms  "  it  to  be  a  mystery  which  no  created  understand- 
ing can  sufficiently  explain  ;  concerning  which  (says  he) 
not  from  any  rashness  of  ours,  but  only  as  the  order  of 
discourse  requires,  we  shall  briefly  speak  rather  what 
our  iiaith  contains,  that  what  human  reason  is  wont  to  as- 
sert, producing  rather  our  own  conjectures,  than  any 
plain  and  peremptory  affirmations.  And  to  the  same 
purpose  he  expresses  himself  at  every  turn.  Not  to  suy 
that  he  wrote  many  things  in  the  heat  of  disputation, 
which  it  may  be  his  cooler  and  more  considering 
thouglits  would  have  set  right.     So  the  apologist  in  Pho- 

q  Cod.  CXVIl.  col.  293. 

r  Ibid. col.  296  s  Apolog.  ap.  Hieron.  Tom.  4. p.  172. 

t  Ad.  Avit.  p.  131.  Torri.  2.  ti  Uf^t  df^.-  '■  2.  c.  6.  \u  6;?d. 


4^0  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN* 

tins  ''pleads,  that  whatever  he  said  amiss  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  trinity,  proceeded  merely  from  a  vehement  oppo- 
sition of  Sabellius,  who  confounded  the  number  and  dif. 
ference  of  persons,  and  whose  sect  was  one  of  the  most 
prevailing  heresies  of  that  time.  The  confutation  where- 
of made  him  attempt  a  greater  difference  and  distinction 
in  the  persons,  than  the  rules  of  faith  did  strictly  allow. 
Secondly,  those  books  of  his'%  wherein  he  betrays  the 
most  unsound  and  unwarrantable  notions,  were  written 
privately,  and  with  no  intention  of  being  made  public, 
but  as  secrets  communicable  among  friends,  and  not  as 
doctrines  to  disturb  the  church.  And  this  he  freely  ac- 
knowledged in  his  letter  to  Fabian  "bishop  of  Rome,  and 
cast  the  blame  upon  his  friend  iVmbrosius,  quod  secreto 
ed'ita  in  piiblician  protuler'it  that  he  had  published  those 
things  which  he  meant  should  go  no  further  than  the 
breasts  or  hands  of  his  dearest  friends.  And  there  is 
always  allowed  a  greater  freedom  and  latitude  in  debat- 
ing things  among  friends,  the  secrets  whereof  ought  not 
to  be  divulged,  nor  the  public  made  judges  of  that  in- 
nocent liberty  which  is  taken  within  men's  private  walls. 
Thirdly,  the  disallowed  opinions  that  he  maintains  are 
many  of  them  such  as  were  not  the  Catholic  and  deter- 
mined doctrines  of  the  church,  not  defined  by  synods, 
nor  disputed  by  divines,  but  either  philosophical,  or 
speculations  which  had  not  been  thought  on  before,  and 
which  he  himself  at  every  turn  cautiously  distinguishes 
from  those  propositions  which  were  entertained  by  the 
common  and  current  consent  and  approbation  of  the 
Christian  church.  Sure  I  am  he  lays  it  down  as  a  fun- 
damental maxim,  in.  the  very  entrance  upon  that  ^'book, 
wherein  his  most  dangerous  assertions  are  contained, 
that  those  ecclesiastic  doctrines  are  to  be  preserved, 
which  had  been  successively  delivered  from  the  apostles, 
and  were  then  received,  and  that  nothing  was  to  be  em- 
braced for  truth  that  any  ways  differed  from  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  church. 

V  Cod.  CXVn.  col  296.  w  PaiDph.  Apol.  ubi  siipr.  p.  174,  \77 . 

X  Ap.  Hicron.  in  Epist.  ad  Pammach.  ck  err.  Orig-.  p.  193.  T.  2. 
y  Pra;!'.  uJ  lib.  rir^i  x^^.  p.  663. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  42i 

28.  Fourthly,  divers  of  Origen's   works  have  been 
Corrupted  and  interpolated  by  evil  hands,  and  heretics 
to  add  a   lustre  and  authority  to  their  opinions  by  the 
veneration  of  so  great  a  name,  have  inserted  their  own 
assertions,  or  altered  his,  and  made  him  speak  their  lan- 
guage.    An  argument   which  however  laughed   at  by 
St.  Hierom'^,  is  yet  stiffly  maintained  by  Rufinus",  who 
shows  this  to  have  been  an  old  and  common  art  of  here- 
tics, and  that  they  dealt  thus  with  the  writings  of  Clemens 
Romanus,  of  Clemens  and  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  of 
Athanasius,  Hilary,  Cyprian,  and  many  more.     Diony- 
sius'' the   famous  bishop   of  Cornith,  who  lived  many 
years  before  Origen,  assures  us  he  was  served  at   this 
rate ;  that  at  the  request  of  the  brethren  he   had  written 
several  epistles,  but  that  the  apostles  and  emissaries  of 
the  devil  had  filled  them  with  weeds  and  tares,  expun- 
ging some  things,  and  adding  others.     The  apologist  in 
Photius  *tells  us  Origen  himself  complained  of  this   in 
his  life  time ;  and  so  indeed  he  does  in  his  ''letter  to  them 
of  Alexandria,  where  he  smartly  resents  that  charge  of 
blasphemy  had  been  ascribed  to  him  and  his  doctrine, 
of  which  he  was  never  guilty,  and  that  it  was  less  won- 
der if  his  doctrine  was   adulterated  when  the  great  St. 
Paul  could  not  escape  their  hands  ;  he  tells  them  of  an 
eminent  heretic,  that  having  taken  a  copy  of  a  dispute 
which  he  had  had  with  him,  did  afterwards  cut  off,   and 
add  what  he  pleased,  and  change  it   into  another  thing, 
carrying  it   about  with  him,  and  glorying  in  it.     And 
when  some   friends  in  Palestine  sent  it  to  him  then  at 
Athens,  he  returned  them  a  true  and  authentic  copy  of 
it.     And  the  same  foul  play  he  lets  them  know  he  had 
met  with  in  other  places,  as  at  Ephesus  and  at  Antioch, 
as  he  there  particularly  relates.     And  if  they  durst  do 
this  while  he  was  yet  alive,  and  able  (as  he  did)  to  right 
himself,  what   may  we  think  they  would  do   after  his 
death,  when  there  were  none  to  control  them?  And  upon 
this  account  most  of  those  assertrons  must  especiallv  be 

z  Ad  Pammach.  ubi  supr.        a  Apol.  pro.  Grig,  apud  Hier.  Tom.'4.  p  194-, 
195.  &.C.  &.  Pi-,«r.  ad  lib.  nsji  d^z-  '^^-  Tom.  2.  p.    188.  b  Ap.  Eused.   H. 

Eccl  1  ♦:  c.2.3.  p.  145.         c  Ubi,  siipr.  d  Ap.  Ruffia  ib.  Ioir.  4.  p.  195, 


422  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

discharged,  wherein  Origen  is  made  to  contradict  him- 
self, it  being  highly  improbable  (as  Rufinus  •'well  urges) 
that  so  prudent  and  learned  a  person,  one  far  enough 
from  being  either  fool  or  madman,  should  write  things 
so  contrary  and  repugnant  to  one  another.  And  that  not 
only  in  divers,  but  in  one  and  the  same  book. 

29.  I  might  further  observe  his  constant  zeal  against 
heretics,  his  opposing  and  refuting  of  them  wherever  he 
came  both  by  word  and  writing,  his  being  sent  for  into 
foreign  countries  to  convince  gainsayers,  his  professing 
to  abominate  all  heretical  doctrines,  and  his  refusing  so 
much  as  to  communicate  in  prayer  with  Paul,  the  heretic 
of  Antioch,  though  his  whole  maintenance  did  depend 
upon  it.  And  methinks  it  deserves  to  be  considered, 
that  Athanasius  in  all  the  heat  of  the  Arian  controversy 
(than  whom  certainly  none  was  ever  more  diligent  to 
search  out  heretical  persons  and  opinions,  or  more  accu- 
rate in  examining  and  refuting  the  chief  of  those  doc- 
trines, that  are  laid  at  Origen's  door)  should  never  charge 
him  upon  that  account.  Nay  he  particularly  quotes 
him  ^to  prove  our  Lord's  coeternit}'  and  coessentiality 
with  the  father  exactly  according  to  the  decisions  of  the 
Nicene  synod,  dismissing  him  with  the  honourable  cha- 
racter of  s-^f/w^sri^f  5  ^/xoTovara?®',  thc  Tiiost  admirable  and  in- 
jinitely  industrious  person.  Nor  is  there  any  hetero- 
dox opinion  of  his,  that  I  know  of,  once  taken  notice  of 
in  all  his  works,  but  only  that  concerning  the  duration 
of  future  torments,  and  that  too  but  ^obliquely  mention- 
ed. Whence  I  am  apt  to  conclude,  either  that  Origen's 
writings  were  not  then  so  notoriously  guilty,  or  that  this 
great  man,  and  zealous  defender  of  the  church's  doc- 
trine (who  being  bishop  of  Alexandria  could  not  be  ig- 
norant of  what  Origen  had  taught  or  written,  nay  assures 
us,  he  had  read  his  books)  did  not  look  upon  those  dan- 
gerous things  that  were  in  them,  as  his  sense.  And 
indeed  so  he  says  expressly  ;  that  what  things  he  wrote 
by  way  of  controversy  and   disputation,  are  not   to  be 

e  Loc.  cit.  p.  194.  f  Decret.  Synod.  Nic.  contr.  Hxres.  Arrian.  p.  2/7. 

T.  1.  vid.  de  Blasph.  in  S.  S.  p.  97\.  &  Socr.  H.  E.  I.  6.  c  13  p  520. 
g  He  Com.  essent.  Pair.  F.  &  SS.  n.  235.   1.1. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  423 

looked  upon  as  his  own  words  and  sentiments,  but  as 
those  of  his  contentious  adversaries  whom  he  had  to 
deal  with,  which  accordingly  in  the  passages  he  cites  he 
carefully  distinguishes  from  Origin's  own  words  and 
sense.  To  all  which  I  may  add,  that  when  the  contro- 
versy about  the  condemnation  of  his  books  was  driven 
on''  most  furiously  by  Theophilus  and  Epiphanius,  The- 
otimus  the  good  Scythian  bishop  plainl}'  told  Epipha- 
nius, that  for  his  part  he  would  never  so  much  dishonour 
a  person  so  venerable  for  his  piety  and  antiquit}',  nor 
durst  he  condemn  what  their  ancestors  never  rejected, 
especially  when  there  were  no  ill  and  mischievous  doc- 
trines in  Origen's  works  ;  therewithal  pulling  out  a  book 
of  Orieen's  which  he  read  before  the  whole  convention, 
and  showed  it  to  contam  expositions  agreeable  to  the 
articles  of  the  church.  With  these  two  excellent  per- 
sons let  me  join  the  judgment  of  a  writer  of  the  middle 
ages  of  the  church,  'Haymo,  bishop  of  Halberstad,  -who 
speaking  of  the  things  laid  to  Origen's  charge :  "  For 
mv  part  (says  he)  saving  the  faith  of  the  ancients,  I 
affirm  of  him,  either  that  he  never  wrote  these  things, 
but  that  they  were  wickedly  forged  by  heretics,  and 
fathered  upon  his  name ;  or  if  he  did  write  them,  he 
wrote  them  not  as  his  own  judgment,  but  as  the  opinion 
of  others.  And  if,  as  some  would  have  it,  they  were 
his  own  sentiments,  we  ought  rather  to  deal  compassion- 
ately with  so  learned  a  man,  who  has  conveyed  so  vast 
a  treasury  of  learning  to  us.  What  faults  there  are  in 
his  writings,  those  orthodox  and  useful  things  which 
they  contain,  arc  abundantly  sufficient  to  over  ballance." 
30.  This  a  great  deal  more,  is,  and  may  be  pleaded 
in  Origen's  defence.  And  yet  after  all  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, that  he  was  guilty  of  great  mistakes,  and  rash 
propositions,  which  the  largest  charity  cannot  excuse. 
He  had  a  natural  warmth  and  fervor  of  mind,  a  compre- 
hensive wit,  an  insatiable  thirst  after  knowledge,  and  a 
desire  to  understand  the  most  abstruse   and  mysterious 

h  Socrat.  H.  Eocl.  1.  6.  c  12.  p.  319.  i  Breviar.  H.  Eccl.  1.  6.  c.  3.  pj 

i08,  199. 


424  THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 

speculations  of  theology,  which  made  him  give  himself 
an  unbounded  liberty  in  inquiring  iiito,  and  discoursing 
of  the  nature  of  things,  he   wrote  much,   and  dictated 
apace,  and  was  engaged  in  infinite  variety  of  business, 
which  seldom  gave  him  leisure  to  review  and  correct  his 
writings,  and  to  let  them  pass  the  censure  of  second  and 
maturer  thoughts  ;  he  traded  greatly  in   the  writings  of 
the  heathens,  and  was   infinitely  solicitous  to  make  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity  look  as  little  unlike  as  might  be 
to  their  best  and  beloved  notions.     And   certainly  what 
Marcellus''  bishop  of  Ancyra  long  since  objected  against 
him,  is  unquestionably  true  (notwithstanding  Avhat  Euse- 
bius  has  said  to  salve  it)   that  coming  fresh  out  of  the 
philosophic  schools,  and  having  been  a  long  time  accu- 
rately trained  up  in  the  principles  and  books  of  Plato,  he 
applied  himself  to  divine  things,  before  he  was  sufficient- 
ly disposed  to  receive  them,  and  fell   upon  writing  con- 
cerning them,  while  secular  learning  had  yet  the  predo- 
minancy in  his  mind,  and  so  unwarily  mingled  philosophic 
notions  with  Christian  principles,  further  than  the  analogy 
of  the  Christian  faith  would   allow.     And   I  doubt  not 
but  whoever  would  parallel  his  and  the  Platonic  princi- 
ples, would  find  that  most  of  the  Kv^iuiio^^t  he  is  charg- 
ed with,  his  master   notions,  were  brought   out  of  the 
school  of  Plato,  as  the  above  mentioned  Huetius  has  in 
many  things  particularly  observed.     St.    Hierom   him- 
self (whom  the  torrent  of  that  time  made  a  severe  enemy 
to  Origen)  could  but  have  so  much  tenderness  for  him, 
even  in  that  very  tract  'wherein  he  passes  the  deepest 
censures  upon  him,  after  he  had  commended  him  for 
his  parts,   zeal,  and  strictness  of  life  ;   "  Which  of  us 
(says  he)  is  able  to   read  so  much   as  he  has  written  ? 
who  would  not  admire  the   ardent  and  sprightly  temper 
of  his  mind  towards  the    holy   scriptures  ?  But  if  any 
envious  zealot  shall  object  his  errors  to  us,  let  him  freely 
hear  what  was  said  of  old  : 

Quandoque  bonus  dormitat  Homeru^ 


Verum  opere  in  longo  fas  est  obrepere  somnu?n. 

k  Ap.Euseb.  contr.  Marcel.  1.  1.  p.  2g.        I  Ad  Pammach.  de  error.  Oxij 
192.  Tom.  2.  m  Horat.  de  Art.  poet.  v.  359.  p.  815. 


P 


>*§; 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN.  425 

In  a  long  work  each  slip  the  censor's  rod 

Does  not  deserve.     Homer  does  sometimes  nod. 

**  Let  US  not  imitate  his  fliults,  whose  virtues  we  cannot 
reach.  Others  both  Greeks  and  Latins  have  erred  in 
the  faith  as  well  as  he,  whom  it  is  not  necessary  to  name, 
lest  we  might  seem  to  defend  him,  not  by  his  own  merit, 
but  by  the  mistakes  of  other  men."  To  all  that  has 
been  hitherto  said,  I  may  add  this,  that  suppose  him 
guilty  of  as  pestilent  and  dangerous  errors  as  the  worst 
of  his  enemies  lay  to  his  charge,  yet  he  afterwards  re- 
pented  of  what  he  had  rashly  and  unadvisedly  written, 
as  appears  by  his  epistle  to  Fabian,  "bishop  of  Rome. 
And  is  it  not  intolerable  rudeness  and  incivility  at  least, 
perpetually  to  upbraid  and  reproach  a  man  with  the 
faults  of  his  past  life,  and  which  he  himself  has  disown- 
ed ?  Sorrow  for  what  is  past  in  some  measure  repairs 
the  breach,  and  repentance  must  be  allowed  next  door 
to  innocence. 


His  writings  mentioned  by  the  ancients  and  which   of 

them  extant  at  this  day. 

Homiliarum  mysticarmn    in  In  Deteronomium  Homillge. 

Genes.  Lib.  II.  In  Libr.  Jesu  Nave  ext.  Ho- 
Commentar.  in    Genes.    Lib.  mil.  XXVI.  Lat. 

XIII.  Extant  Latine  Homi-  In  Libr.  Judicum    ext.  Horn. 

hie  XVIL  IX.  Lat. 

Commentar.   Tomi    in     Exo-  In  I.  Lib.  Regum  Homil.  IV. 

dum.  Ext.  Latine  Homiliae  In  Lib.  II.  extat  Homilia  una. 

XII.  In  Lib.  Paralipom.  Homil.  I. 

Scholia  in  Leviticum  In  duos  Esdi'se  Libros  Homi- 

Ext.  Homilias  XVI.  lias. 

In  Numeros  extant  Lat.  Ho-  In  Libr.  Job  Tractatus. 

milix  XXVIIL 


n  Ap.  Hier.  ubi  supr,  p.  193.  vid.  Ruff.  Invect.  I.  in  Hieron.  inter,  oper 
Hier.  T.  4.  p.  219.  Primus  faelicitatis  gradiis  est,  non  delinqiiere  :  Secundiis, 
delicla  ognoscere.  Illic  ciu-rit  innocontia  integra  &  illibata  qii;c  servet,  hie 
s'iccedit  medela  qu<c  sanet.  Cvnr,  ad  Cornel.  Epist  55.  p.  83 

3     H 


426 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGEN. 


{Commentarii. 
Homilise. 
Scholia. 
Ext.  Lat.  in  Psalm.  36.  Horn. 
V.  in  Psal.  37.  Horn.  II.  in 
Psal.  38.  Horn.  II. 
In    Proverbia     Salom.    Com- 

mentar. 
Kxplicatio  Ecclesiastis. 
In    Canticum   Cantic.     Com- 
mentarii. Ext.  Lat.  Homi- 
lise IL 

fCommentar.   Li- 

,     -^     .        j      bri  XXX. 

in  Esaiam<  ,,      -r    wir 
I  Homilia;  AAV. 

l^Scholia. 

Ext.  Lat.  Homilia;  IX. 

In  Jeremiam  Homiliae  XLV. 

Extant   Gr.  Lat.   Homil. 

XVIL 

In  Threnos  Tomi  IX. 

In  Ezechielem  Tomi  XXV. 

Ext.  Lat.  Homil.  XIV. 

In  Danielem  Expositio. 

In   XII.   Prophetas    Tomi 

XXV. 

(^Comment.  Lib. 

In  Mat-  '       XXV. 

thseum    j  Homilise   XXV. 

l^Scholia. 

Ext.  Gr.  Lat.  Tomi  VII. 

In  Lucam  Commentar.  Tomi 

V. 

Ext.  Lat.  HomilicE. 

XXXIX. 

In  Joannem  Commentar.  Tom. 

xxxu. 

Ext.  Gr.  Lat.  Tom.  IX. 

In  Acta  Apostolorum  Homil. 
aliquot. 

In    Epistolam    ad    Romanes 
Explanationum  Lib.  XX. 
Ext.  Lat.  Libri  X. 

In  I.  ad  Corinthios   Commen- 
tarii. 


T    r-   •  *     J  f  Commentani. 
in  Epist.  ad  I  u      .,. 

Oalatas       I  c  i.  i- 
l^bchoha. 

In  Epist.  ap  Ephes.  Comment. 
Lib.  III. 

In  Epist.  ad  Coloss.  Commen- 
tarii. 

In  I.  ad  Thess.  Vol.  (ut  mini- 
mum) III. 

In  Epist.  ad  Titum. 

T     17   •  ..     J  f  Commentarii 
In  Epist.  ad  J 

Hebrseos     ]  „      -r 
(.Homihse. 

Tetrapla. 

Hexapla. 

Octapla. 
Commentarii  in  Veteres  Phl- 

losophos. 
De  Resurrectione  Libri  II. 
De  Resurrectione  Dialogi. 
Stromateon  Libri  X. 
Disputationes  cum  Beryllo. 
nsg/  ci^x^v,    seu    de    Principiis 

Lib.  IV.  Ext.  Lat. 
Contra    Celsum    Lib  VIII. 

Ext.  Gr.  L. 
De  Martyrio.  Ext.  Gr.  L. 
Homil.   de  Engastrimytho. 

Ext.  Gr.  L. 
De  Oratione.  Ext.  Gr.  Ms. 
Philocalia  de  aliquot  prascipuis 

l^heologiae     locis   &    quaes- 

tionibus    ex  Origenis  scrip- 

tis   a  S.  Basilio  &  Gregor. 

Naz.  excerptis,  cap.  XXVII 

ext.  Gr.  L. 

Epistolae  fere    infinitae   ex 
his  hodie  ext. 
Epistola   ad  Jul.    Africanum 

de  Histor.  Susannae,  Gr.  L. 
Epistola  ad  Gregorium  Thau- 

maturgum.      Ext.    Gr.    L- 

in  Philocalia. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ORIGE^.  427 

Donbtfiil.  De    Philosophorura   Sectis   & 

Dialogus  contra   Maixionitas,  dogmatibus. 

de  recta  in  Deum  fide.    Ext.  I^amentum  Origenis. 

Gr.  L.  Scholia  in  Orationem  Domi- 

Supposititious.  nicam,    &    in     Cantica    B. 

In    Libri    Job    Tract.   Ill    &  Virginis,   Zachariae,   &  SI 

Comment,  in  eundem.  meonis. 
Commentarius  in  Evangel.  S. 

Marci.  Homiliae    in   diver- 

sos. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS, 


BISHOP  OF   ANTIOCH. 


His  originals  obscure.  His  education  and  accomplishments  inquired  into. 
Made  bishop  of  Antioch,  when.  Antioch  taken  by  the  king  of  Persia. 
Recovered  by  the  Roman  emperor.  Babylas's  fidelity  in  his  charge. 
The  Decian  persecution,  and  the  grounds  of  it :  severely  urged  by  the 
emperor's  edicts.  Decius's  coming  to  Antioch.  His  attempt  to 
break  into  the  Christian  congregation.  Babylas's  bold  resistance. 
This  applied  to  Numerianus,  and  the  ground  of  the  mistake.  The 
like  reported  of  Philip  the  emperor.  Decius's  bloody  act  related  by 
St.  Chrysostom.  His  rage  against  Babylas,  and  his  examination  of 
him.  The  martyr's  I'esolute  answer.  His  imprisonment  and  hard 
usage.  The  different  accounts  concerning  his  death.  Three  youths 
his  fellow-sufferers,  in  vain  attempted  by  the  emperor.  Their  mar- 
tyrdom first  and  why.  Babylas  beheaded.  His  command  that  his 
chains  should  be  buried  with  him.  The  translation  of  his  body  under 
Constantius.  The  great  sweetness  and  pleasantness  of  the  Daphne. 
Apollo's  temple  there.  St.  Babylas's  bones  translated  thither  by  Gal- 
lus  Caesar.  The  oracle  immediately  rendered  dumb.  In  vain  con- 
sulted by  Julian.  The  confession  of  the  demon.  Julian's  comma.nd 
for  removing  Babylas's  bones.  The  martyi's'  i-emains  triumphantly 
carried  into  the  city.  The  credit  of  this  stoiy  sufficiently  attested. 
The  thing  owned  by  Libanius  and  Julian.  Why  such  honour  suffered 
to  be  done  to  the  martyr.  Julian  afraid  of  an  immediate  vengeance. 
His  persecution  against  the  Christians  at  Antioch.  The  sufferings  or' 
Theodorus.     The  temple  of  Apollo  fired  from  Heaven. 

1.  SO  great  and  general  is  the  silence  of  church  an- 
tiquity in  the  acts  of  this  holy  martyr,  especially  the 
former  part  of  his  life,  that  I  should  wholly  pass  him 
over,  did  not  his  latter  times  furnish  us  with  some  few 
memorable  passages  concerning  him.  His  country,  pa- 
rents, education,  and  way  of  life,  are  all  unknown,  as 
also  whether  he  was  born  and  bred  a  gentile,  or  a  Chris- 
tian. No  doubt  he  was  trained  up  under  the  advantages 
of  a  liberal  and  ingenuous  education,  living  in  places 
that  opportunely  ministred  unto  it,  and  in  times  when 
none  but  men  of  known  parts  and  eminency  both  for 


430  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS. 

learning  and  piety  were  advanced  to  the  government  qF 
the  church:  and  when  great  measures  of  arts  and  learn- 
ing were  not  only  commendable,  but  necessary,  both  to 
feed  and  preserve  the  flock  of  God,  to  resist  and  convince 
gainsayers,  and  to  defend  Christianity  against  the  at- 
tempts both  of  secret  and  open  enemies.  For  as  the 
Christian  church  never  wanted  professed  adversaries  from 
without,  who  endeavoured  both  by  sword  and  pen  to  stifle 
and  suppress  its  growth,  nor  pretended  friends  from 
within,  who  by  schisms  and  heresies  disturbed  its  peace, 
and  tore  out  its  very  bowels;  so  never  were  these  more 
predominant  than  in  those  times  and  parts  of  the  world 
wherein  this  good  man  lived. 

2.  ANN.  Chr.  CCXXXIX.  Gordlan  Imper.  I.  died 
Zebinus*  bishop  of  Antioch,  in  whose  room  Babylas 
succeeded.  He  was  a  stout  and  prudent  pilot,  who  (as 
St.  Chrysostom  ^  says  of  him)  guided  the  holy  vessel  of 
that  church  in  the  midst  of  storms  and  tempests,  and  the 
many  waves  that  beat  upon  it.  Indeed  in  the  beginning 
of  his  presidency  over  that  church  he  met  not  with  much 
trouble  from  the  Roman  powers,  the  old  enemies  of 
Christianity,  but  a  fierce  storm  blew  from  another  quar- 
ter. For  Sapor  king  of  Persia  "  had  lately  invaded  the 
Roman  empire,  and  having  oa  errun  all  Syria,  had  be- 
sieged and  taken  Antioch,  and  so  great  a  dread  did  his 
conquests  strike  into  all  parts,  that  the  terror  of  them 
Hew  into  Italv,  and  startled  them  even  at  Rome  itself. 
He  grievously  oppressed  the  people  of  Antioch,  and  what 
treatment  the  Christians  there  must  needs  find  under  so 
merciless  and  insolent  an  enemy  (at  no  time  favourable 
to  Christians)  is  no  hard  matter  to  imagine.  But  it  was 
not  long  before  God  broke  this  yoke  from  ofi'  their 
necks.  For  Gordian,  the  emperor,  raising  a  mighty  ar- 
my, marched  into  the  east,  and  having  cleared  the  coun- 
tries as  he  went  along,  came  into  Syria,  and  went  directly 
for  Antioch,  wliere  he  totally  routed  the  Persian  army, 
recovered  Antioch  and  the  conquered  cities,  and  giijncd 
some   considerable   places  bclojiging  to  Sapor,  whom 

a  Euseb.  H.  Eccl.  1.  16.  c.  29.  p.  229.      b  Homil.  de  S.  Bubyl.  p.  641.  torn  1. 
c  Capitol,  ill  Gordian.   Ill,  c.  12(3  p  649. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS.  431 

he  forced  to  retire  back  into  his  own  country :  of  all  which 
he  gives  an  account  in  a  letter  ''  to  the  senate,  who  joy- 
fully received  the  news,  and  decreed  him  a  triumph  at 
his  return  to  Rome. 

3.  The  church  of  Antioch  being  thus  restored  to  its 
former  tranquillit}-,  Babylas  attended  his  charge  with  all 
diligence  and  fidelity,  instructing,  feeding,  and  govern- 
ing his  flock,  preparing  both  young  and  old  to  undergo 
the  hardest  things,  which  their  religion  might  expose 
them  to,  as  if  he  had  particularly  foreseen  that  black 
and  dismal  persecution  that  was  shortly  to  overtake 
them.  Having  quietly  passed  through  the  reign  of 
Philip  (who  was  so  far  from  creating  any  disturbance  to 
the  Christians,  that  he  is  generally  though  groundlesly, 
supposed  to  have  been  a  Christian  himself)  he  fell  into 
the  troublesome  and  stormy  times  of  Decius,  who  was 
unexpectedly  advanced,  and  in  a  manner  forced  upon 
the  empire.  One,  whose  character  might  have  passed 
among  none  of  the  worst  of  princes,  if  lie  had  not  so  in- 
delebly  stained  his  memory  with  his  outragious  violence 
against  the  Christians.  The  main  cause  whereof  the 
generality  of  writers,  taking  the  hint  from  Eusebius% 
make  to  have  been  hatred  to  his  predecessor  Philip,  a 
Christian,  as  they  account  him,  and  whom  he  resolved 
to  punish  in  his  spleen  and  malice  against  them.  But 
methinks  much  more  probable  is  the  account  which 
Gregory  Nyssen*^  gives  of  this  matter,  viz.  the  large 
spread  and  triumphant  prevalency  of  the  Christian  faith, 
which  had  diffused  itself  over  all  parts,  and  planted  every 
corner,  and  filled  not  cities  only,  but  country  villages ; 
the  temples  were  forsaken,  and  churches  frequented, 
altars  overthrown,  and  sacrifices  turned  out  of  doors. 
This  vast  increase  of  Christianity,  and  great  declension 
of  paganism,  awakened  Decius  to  look  about  him  :  he 
was  vexed  to  see  the  religion  of  the  empire  trodden  un- 
der foot,  and  the  worship  of  the  gods  every  where  slight- 
ed  and  neglected,  opposed  and  undermined  by  a  novel 


d  Ibid.  c.  27.  p.  670.  e  H.  Eccl.  1 .  6,  c.  39.  p.  234.  f  De  vit.  Greg-, 

Thaum.  p.  999.  Tom.  2. 


432  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS. 

and  upstart  sect  of  Christians,  which  daily  muUiplied  into 
greater  numbers.  This  made  him  resolve  with  all  pos- , 
sible  force  to  check  and  control  this  growing  sect,  and 
to  try  by  methods  of  cruelty  to  weary  Christians  out  of 
their  profession,  and  to  reduce  the  people  to  the  religion 
of  their  ancestors.  Whereupon  he  issued  out  edicts  to 
governors  of  provinces,  strictly  commanding  them  to 
proceed  with  all  severity  against  Christians,  and  to  spare 
no  manner  of  torments,  unless  they  returned  to  the  obe- 
dience and  worship  of  the  gods.  Though  I  doubt  not 
but  this  was  the  main  spring  that  set  the  rage  and  malice 
of  their  enemies  on  work,  yet  Cyprian^  like  a  man  of 
great  piety  and  modesty,  seeks  a  cause  nearer  home,  in- 
genuously confessing,  that  their  own  sins  had  set  open 
the  flood-gates  for  the  divine  displeasure  to  break  in 
upon  them,  while  pride,  and  self-seeking,  schism  and 
faction  reigned  so  much  among  them,  the  very  martyrs 
themselves,  who  should  have  been  a  good  example  unto 
others,  casting  off  the  order  and  discipline  of  the  church  ; 
and  being  swelled  with  so  vain  and  immoderate  a  tumour, 
it  was  time  God  should  send  them  a  thorn  in  the  flesh 
to  cure  it. 

4.  The  provincial  governors,  forward  enough  to  run 
of  themselves  upon  such  an  errand,  made  much  more 
haste,  when  they  were  not  only  encouraged,  but  threat- 
ed  into  it  by  the  imperial  edicts,  so  that  the  persecution 
was  carried  on  in  all  parts  with  a  quick  and  a  high  hand, 
concerning  the  severity  whereof  we  shall  speak  more 
elsewhere.  At  present  it  may  suffice  to  remark  that  it 
swept  away  many  of  the  most  eminent  bishops  of  the 
church,  Fabian  bishop  of  Rome,  Alexander,  bishop  of 
Hierusalem,  and  several  others.  Nor  was  it  long  before 
it  came  to  St.  Babylas's  door.  For  Decius  probably 
about  the  middle  of  his  reign,  or  some  time  before  his 
Thracian  expedition,  wherein  he  lost  his  life,  came  into 
Syria,  and  so  to  Antioch,  to  take  order  about  his  affairs 
that  concerned  the  Persian  war.  I  confess  his  coming 
into  these  parts  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Roman  histories, 

gEprst.  VII.  p.  16. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS.  43. 

and  no  wonder,  the  accounts  of  liis  life  either  not  having 
been  written  by  the  Histories  Augusts  Scriptores,  or  il 
they  were,  having  long  since  perished,  and  few  of  his 
acts  are  taken  notice  of  in  those  historians  that  yet  re- 
main. However  the  thing  is  plainly  enough  owned  b) 
ecclesiastical  writers.  While  ''  he  continued  here,  eithei 
out  of  curiosity,  or  a  design  to  take  some  more  plausible 
advantage  to  fall  upon  them,  he  would  needs  go  into  the 
Christian  congregation,  when  the  public  assembly  was 
met  together.  This  Babylas  would  by  no  means  give 
way  to,  but  standing  in  the  church  porch,  with  an  un- 
daunted courage  and  resolution  opposed  him,  telling 
him,  that  as  much  as  lay  in  his  power,  he  would  never 
endure  that  a  wolf  should  break  in  upon  Ch-ist's  sheep- 
fold.  'J'he  emperor  urged  it  no  further  at  present,  ei- 
ther being  unwilling  to  exasperate  the  rage  and  fury  oi 
the  people,  or  designing  to  eftbct  it  some  other  way.  This 
passage  there  are,  and  Nicephorus  among  the  rest  (with 
whom  accord  exactly  the  Menaea  and  Menologies  of  the: 
Greek  church)  that  ascribe  not  to  Decius,  but  Numeri 
anus  (whom  Suidas's  translator  corruptly  styles  Mari 
anus)  who  reigned  at  least  thirty  years  after.  A  mistake- 
without  any  pillar  or  ground  of  truth  to  support  it,  then 
being  at  that  time  no  Babylas,  bishop  of  Antioch,  whoir: 
all  agree  to  have  sufiered  under  the  Decian  persecution. 
And  it  is  not  improbable  what  Baronius  '  conjectures, 
but  the  mistake  might  at  first  arise  from  this,  that  theic 
was  under  Decius  one  Numerius,  one  of  the  generals  of 
the  army,  a  violent  persecutor  of  the  Christians,  whon. 
it  is  not  to  be  doubted  the  first  mistakes  of  the  rcpor. 
confounded  with  Numerianus,  and  applied  to  him  wha; 
belonged  to  the  emperor,  under  whom  he  served. 

5.  Eusebius  "^  relates  a  like  passage  to  this,  but  attr; 
butes  it  to  the  emperor  Philip,  Decius's  predecessor,  tcl; 
mg  us,  that  when  on  the  Vigils  of  Easter  he  would  ha\ . 
gone  with  the  rest  of  the  Christians  into  the  church,  to  1,^. 

h  Chrysrst.  lib.  de  S.  Babyl.  Tom.  6.  p.  658.  &  passim.  Pliilost.  H.  Eccl.  1.  .' 
c.  8. p.  94.  Said,  in  voc.  Betf:.x«?,  Niceph.  H.  Eccl.  1.  10.  c.  28.  p.  63. 

i  Ad.  Ann.  253.  n.  CXXVI,  vld  S.  Metaphr.  in  Martyr.  S.  Isidor.  apud.  S.i 
Feb,  V.p.  48.  k  H.Eccl.  1.  6.  c.  34.  p.  232, 

3i 


434.  THE  l^IFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS. 

present  at  their  prayers,  the  bishop  of  the  place  would 
by  no  means  suffer  him,  unless  he  would  make  public 
confession  of  his  sins,  and  pass  through  the  order  of  the 
penitents,  for  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  many  heinous 
and  enormous  crimes,  \vhich  he  readily  submitted  to. 
But  besides  that,  this  is  laid  as  the  main  foundation  of 
Philip's  falsely  supposed  Christianity,  Eusebius  justifies 
it  by  no  better  authority  than  fame  and  mere  report. 
And  indeed  stands  alone  in  this  matter.  For  though 
some  of  the  ancients  referred  it  to  Numerian,  yet  none 
but  he  entitled  Philip  to  it.  St.  Chrysostom  in  a  large 
'encomiastic  (wherein  he  describes  this  act  of  Babylas 
in  all  the  colours  wherein  wit  and  eloquence  could  re- 
present it,  particularly  equalling  it  with  the  spirit  and 
freedom  of  Elias,  and  John  the  baptist)  tells  us,  that 
when  the  emperor  made  this  attempt,  he  had  newly  wash- 
ed his  hands  in  innocent  blood,  having  barbarously,  and 
against  the  faith  of  his  most  solemn  oath,  and  the  laws  of 
nations,  put  to  death  the  little  son  of  a  certain  king, 
whom  his  father  had  given  in  hostage  to  secure  a  peace 
made  between  them.  This  probably  was  either  the  son 
of  some  petty  prince  in  those  parts,  who  entered  into  a 
league  with  him  while  he  was  at  Antioch,  or  some  3'oung 
prince  of  Persia,  pawned  as  a  pledge  to  ensure  the  peace 
between  those  two  crowns,  and  whom  he  had  no  sooner 
received,  but  either  to  gratify  his  cruelty,  or  else  pre- 
tending some  fraud  in  the  articles,  he  inhumanly  butch- 
ered. The  author  of  the  '"Alexandrian  Chronicon,  tells 
us,  and  vouches  Leontius  bishop  of  Antioch  for  the  re- 
lation, that  Philip  (in  the  Greek  is  added  i  iKw^g,  probably 
for  0  'iKAi®-,  the  sirnameof  that  emperor,  andnot  junior,  the 
younger,  as  the  translator  renders  it,  and  elsewhere  cor- 
rects it  by  n§63^^JTfg(^,  the  elder)  being  governor  of  a  pro- 
vince  in  the  reign  of  Gordianus,  Gordian  had  committed 
the  care  of  his  young  son  to  him,  whom  after  his 
father's  death  he  slew,  and  usurped  the  empire  : 
that  being  thus  guilty  of  murder,  though  he  was 
a  Christian,  3et  St.  Babylas  would  not  admit  him  or  hi- 

1  Ubi  siipr.  p.  supr.  p.  655. 
m  Olymp.  2.i7.  i.  Decii.  1.  Indict.  K.  p.  630.  vid.  ibid.  p.  628, 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS.  435 

wife  into  the  church ;  for  which  aftront  offered  to  so 
great  persons,  and  not  merely  because  he  was  a  Christian 
liimself,  Decius  afterwards  put  St,  Babylas  to  death. 
A  strange  medley  of  true  and  false,  as  indeed  it  is  the 
custom  of  that  author  to  confound  times,  things,  and 
persons.  However,  most  evident  it  is  from  Chrysostom, 
that  it  was  the  same  emperor  by  whom  this  young 
prince  was  murdered,  and  St.  Babylas  put  to  death, 
which  could  be  no  other  than  Decius;  who  with  hands 
thus  reeking  in  the  blood  of  the  innocent,  would  have 
irreverently  rushed  into  the  holy  place  of  the  Christian 
sanctuary,  where  none  but  pure  hands  were  lift  up  to 
heaven. 

VI.  Decius,  though  for  the  present  he  dissembled" 
his  anger  and  went  away,  yet  inw^ardly  resented  the  af- 
front, and  being  returned  to  the  palace,  sent  for  Baby- 
las, and  ha"\  ing  sharply  expostulated  with  him  for  the 
boldness  and  insolency  of  the  fact,  commanded  him  to 
do  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  assuring  him  that  this  was  the 
only  expedient  to  expiate  his  crime,  divert  his  punish- 
ment, and  to  purchase  him  honour  and  renown.  The 
martyr  answered  to  all  his  inquiries  with  a  generous  con- 
fidence, despised  his  profilers,  and  defied  his  threats,  told 
liim,  that  as  to  the  offence  wherewith  he  charged  him,  he 
was  obliged  as  a  pastor  readily  to  do  whatever  was  con- 
ducive to  the  benefit  of  his  flock;  and  for  his  command, 
he  was  resolved  ne^•er  to  apostatize  from  the  service 
of  the  true  God  and  sacrifice  to  de^•ils,  and  those 
>\ho  falsely  usurped  the  name  and  honour  of  deities. 
The  emperor  finding  his  resolutions  firm  and  inflex- 
ible, gave  order  that  chains  and  fetters  should  be  clapt 
upon  him,  with  which  he  was  sent  to  prison,  where 
he  endured  °  many  se^•ere  hardships  and  sufferings,  but 
yet  rejoiced  in  his  bonds,  and  was  more  troubled  at  the 
misery  that  attended  him  that  sent  him  thither,  than  at 
the  weight  of  his  own  chains,  oV  the  sharpness  of  those 
torments  that  were  heaped  upon  him.  So  naturally  does 
Christianity  teach  us  to  bless  them  that  curse  us,  to  pray 

n  Philost  et  Su'ul.  iibi  .-up".  o  Chrysost.  \oc .  pit.  p   667,  668.  niartir 

Roni    :ul  Juiuiur.  Y.'AW 


436  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS. 

for  them  that   despitefuUy  use  and  persecute  uSy    and  to 
overcome  evil  with  good. 

7.  There  is  some  little  difference  in  the  accounts  of 
the  ancients,  concerning  the  manner  of  his  mariyrdom. 
Kusebiiis  P  and  some  others  make  him  after  a  famous 
confession  to  die  in  prison;  while  Chrysostom  **  (whom 
T  rather  incline  to  believe  in  this  matter,  as  more  capable 
to  know  the  traditions  and  examine  the  records  of  that 
church)  and  Suidas  affirm,  that  being  bound  he  was  led 
forth  out  of  prison  to  undergo  his  martyrdom,  the  one 
plainly  intimating,  the  other  positively  expressing  it,  that 
he  was  beheaded.  The  fatal  sentence  being  passed,  as 
he  was  led  to  execution,  he  began  his  song  of  triumph, 
Return  unto  thy  rest,  0  my  sou/,  for  the  Lord  hath  dealt 
bountifully  -with  vie.  Together  with  him  were  led  along 
three  youths,  brothers  (whose  names  the  Roman  Mar- 
tyrology  ''  tells  us,  were  Urbanus,  Prilidianus,  and  Epo- 
lonius)  whom  he  had  carefully  instructed  in  the  faith,  and 
had  trained  up  for  so  scA^ere  a  trial.  The  emperor,  not 
doubting  to  prevail  upon  their  tender  years,  had  taken 
them  from  their  tutor,  and  treated  them  with  all  kinds  of 
hardship  and  cruelty,  as  methods  most  apt  to  make 
impression  upon  weak  and  timorous  minds.  But  per- 
ceiving them  immovably  determined  not  to  sacrifice,  he 
commanded  them  also  to  be  beheaded.  Being  arrived  at 
the  place  of  execution,  Babyias  placed  the  children  first, 
giving  them  the  precedency  of  martyrdom,  lest  the  spec- 
tacle of  his  bloody  fate  should  relax  their  constancy,  and 
make  them  desert  their  station.  As  the  officer  was  tak- 
ing off  their  heads,  he  cried  aloud,  Behold,  I  and  fJie 
children  which  the  Lord  hath  given  me;  and  afier  that 
laid  down  his  own  neck  upon  the  block,  having  first  ' 
given  order  to  his  friends,  to  whom  he  had  committed 
the  care  of  his  body,  that  his  chains  and  fetters  should  be 
buried  in  the  same  grave  with  him,  that  they  might  there 
remain  as  ensigns  of  honour,  and  the  badges  of  his  suf- 
ferings, and  as  evidences  how  much  he  accounted  those 
things  which  seem  most  ignominious  among  men,  to  be 
for  Christ's  sake  most  splendid  and  honourable:    imitat- 

p  Lib.  (i.  c.  39.  p.  23'1.  (j  Loc.  cit.  p.  669  i  Loc.  citat. 

s  Chrysost.  Suid.  Martyr.  Rom.  ubi  supra. 


THE   LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS.  437 

ing  therein  the  great  St.  Paul,  who  took  pleasure  in  bonds, 
chains,  imprisonments,  reproaches,  professing  to  rejoice 
and  glory  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  his  sufferings,  and  in 
the  cross  of  Christ.  Accordingly  his  chains  were  laid 
up  with  him  in  the  grave,  where  Chrysostom  assures  us 
they  remained  in  his  time. 

8.  Where  his  body  was  first  buried,  we  are  not  told; 
but  wherever  it  was,   there  it  remained  till  the  time  of 
Constantius,  when  it  had  a  more  magnificent  interment, 
which  proved  the  occasion  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
occurrences  that  church-antiquity  has  conveyed  to  us. 
There  was  a  *  place  in  the  suburbs  of  Antioch  called 
Daphne,    a  place  that  seemed  to  be  contri\'ed  by  nature 
on  purpose  as  the  highest  scene  of  pleasure  and  delight. 
It  was  a  delicate  grove  thick  set  with  cypress,  and  other 
trees,  which  according  to  the  season  afforded  all  manner 
of  fruits  and  flowers.     Furnished  it    was  with    infinite 
variety   of  shady  walks,  the    trees  joining  their  bush\ 
heads  forbade  the  approaches  of  the   sun  to  annoy  and 
scorch  them;   watered  wdth  plenty  of  chrystal  fountains 
and  pleasant  rivulets,  the  air  cool  and  temperate,  and  tht- 
wind  playing  within  the  boughs  of  the  trees,  added  a  na- 
tural harmony  and  delightful  murmur.     It  was  the  usual 
scene  of  the  poets'  amorous  and  wanton  fancies,  and  in- 
deed so  great  a  temptation  to  intemperance  and  riot,  that 
it  was  accounted  scandalous  for  a  good  man  to  be  seen 
there.   But  that  which  was  the  greatest  glory  of  the  place 
was  a  statel}'  and  magnificent  temple,    said  to  be  erected 
there  by  Seleucus,  father  to  Antiochus,  who  built  Anti- 
och,   and  by  him  dedicated  to  Apollo  Daphnasus,   who 
also  had  a  very  costly  and  ancient  image  placed  within 
the  temple,  where  oracles  were  given  forth,  which  gave 
not  the  least  addition  to  the  renown  and  honour  of  it.  And 
in  this  condition  it  remained,  till  Gallus,  Julian's   elder 
brother,  being  lately  created  Cesar  by  his  cousin  Con- 
stantius,  was  sent  to  reside  at  Antioch,  to  secure  those 
frontier  parts  of  the  empire  against  the  incursions  of  the 
enemy.     He  having  a  singular  veneration  for  the  memo- 
ries of  Christian  martyrs,    resolved  to  purge   this   place 
from  its  lewd  customs  and  pagan  superstitions.     Whieh 

t  Chrysost.  ibid.  p.  671.  Sozom.  1.  6.  c.  19.  p.  625.  Niceph.  1.  10.  c.  28.  j)  61. 


438  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS. 

he  thought  he  could  not  more  effectually  compass  than 
by  building  a  church  over  against  Apollo's  temple ; 
which  was  no  sooner  finished  and  beautified,  but  he 
caused  St.  Babylas's  coffin  to  be  translated  thither. 

9.  The  devil    it   seems  liked  him  not   for  so  near  a 
neighbour,    his  presence   striking   him   dumb,    so  that 
henceforth  not  one  syllable  of  an  oracle  was  given  out. 
This  silence  was  at  first  "  looked  upon  as  the  effect  only 
of  neglect,  that  the  sullen  demon  would  not  answer,  be- 
causehe  had  not  his  usual  tribute  of  sacrifices,  incense,  and 
other  ritual  honours  paid  tohim;  but  was  found  afterwards 
to  arise  from  the  neighbourhood  of  St.  Babylas's  ashes, 
which  caused  their  second  removal  upon  this  occasion. 
Julian,  having  succeeded  Constantius  in  the  empire,  came 
to  Antioch  in  order  to  his  expedition  into  Persia,  and  being 
intolerably  overgrown  with  superstition,  presentl}'  wentup 
to  Apollo's  temple,  to  consult  the  oracle  about  thesuccess 
of  the  war, ''  and  some  other  important  aft'airs  of  the  em- 
pire,  offering   the  choicest  sacrifices,   and  making  very 
rich  and  costly  presents.  But,  alas,  all  in  vain,  his  prayers, 
and  gifts,  and  sacrifices  availed  nothing,  the  demon  giv- 
ing him  to  understand  that  the  dead  kt\^t  him  from  speak- 
ing,  and  that  till  the  place  was  cleared  from  the  corpse 
that  lay  hard  by,  he  could  return  no  answers  by  the  ora- 
cle.    Julian,  quickly  perceived  his  meaning,  and  though 
many  dead  bodies  had  been  buried  there,   he  suspected 
it  was  Babylas's  remains  that  were  particularh'  aimed  at, 
and  therefore  commanded  the  Christians  to  remo^'e  them 
thence.      Who  thereupon  assembled  in  infinite  numbers, 
persons  of  all  ages  and  sexes,  ar.d  laying  the  coffin  upon 
an  open  chariot,    brought  it  into  the  city  with  the  most 
solemn  triumph,    singing  psalms  of  joy  all  the  Avay  they 
went;  and  the  end  of  every  period  adding  this  tart  sting- 
ing versicle.   Confounded  be  all  they  that  worship  carved 
images. 

10.  The  reader  'tis  like  may  be  apt  to  scruple   this 
story,  as   savouring  a  little  of  superstition,  and  giving 

u  Chrvsn?t.  p.  674,  tt  script f>rcs  supra  citat. 

V  Chrys.  Homil.  de  S.  Babyl.p.  644.  et  I.de  S.Balnl.  p.  671,  677,  679.  So?., 
ct  Niceph.  iibi  supr.  Socrat.  I.  3.  c.  18.  p.  liM  Tlieoilor.  II.  E.  1-3.  c.  IC't"  , 
132.  Co;it'  Pliilubt.  be.  supr.  cil;il. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS.  439 

too  much  honour  to  the   relics  of  saints.     To  which  I 
shall  say  no  more,  than  that  the  credit  of  it  seems  un- 
questionable,    it   being  reported  not  only  by  Socrates, 
Sozomen,   and  Thcodoret  (who  all  lived  very  near  that 
time)  but  by  Chrysostom,  who  was  born  at  Antioch,  and 
was  a  long  time  presbyter  of  that  church,  and  was  scho- 
lar there  to  Libanius  the  sophister  at  that  very  time  when 
die  thing  was  done,  and  an  *  eye-witness  of  it,  and  who 
not   only  preached  the   thing,   but   wrote   a  discourse 
against  the  gentiles  upon  this  ^•ery  subject,   wherein  he 
appeals  "^   to  the  knowledge  botli  of  young  and  old  tlicn 
alive,  who  had  seen  it,  and  challenges  them  to  stand  up, 
and  contradict,  if  they  could,   the  truth  of  what  he  relat- 
ed.    Na}',    which  further  puts  the  case  past  all  perad- 
venture,  •    Libanius  the    orator  evidently  confesses   it, 
when  he  tells  us,  that  Apollo  Daphnceus,  though  before 
neglected  and  forgotten,   yet  when  Julian  came  with  sa- 
crifices and  oblations  to  kiss  his  foot,   he  appeared  again 
in  his  rites  of  worship,  after  that  he  had  been  freed  from 
the  unwelcome  neighbourhood  of  a    certain  dead  man^ 
who  lay  hard  by,   to  his  great  trouble  and  disturbance. 
And  Julian  himself''  tells  the  Christians  that  he  had  sent 
back  Tiv  vsxg-vr  A.-/*v).c,  their  dead  via?i  that  had  been  buried  in 
Daphne.     Nor  is  it  improbable  that  God  should  suffer 
such  an  extraordinary  passage  to  happen,  especially  at 
this  time,   to  demonstrate  the  vanity  of  the  gentile  reli- 
gion, to  correct  the  infidelity  of  the  emperor,  and  to  give 
testimony    to   that  religion    which  he  scorned  with  so 
much  insolence  and  sarcasm,  and  pursued  with  so  much 
vigour  and  opposition.    If  any  inquire  why  Julian  should 
so  far  gratify  the  Christians,   as  to  bestow  the  mart}-r's 
bones  upon  them,  and  suffer  them  to  convey  them  with 
so  much  pomp  and  honour  into  the  city,   and  not  rather 
scatter  the  ashes  into  the  air,  thrown  them  into  the  fire,  or 
drown  the  coffin  in  the  river  ?     "  Chrysostom  answers, 
that  he  durst  not,  he  ^vas  afraid  lest  the  divine  vengeance 
should  overtake  him,  lest  a  thunderbolt  from  heaven  should 

\v  Vid.  lib.  citat.  p.  654.  et  Hum.  de  Bab.  p.  641.  x  Ibiil.  p.  67C. 

V  Monod.  sup.  Apoll.  faniim  ijni  exust  p.  \^5      ?.  M:.sapo^  p.  96. 
s  Ihid   p.  631 


440  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS. 

strike  him,  or  an  incurable  disease  arrest  him,  as  such 
kind  of  miserable  fates  had  overtaken  some  of  his  prede- 
cessors in  the  height  of  their  activity  against  the  Chris- 
tians, and  he  had  lately  seen  sad  instances  of  it  that  came 
very  near  him;  his  uncle  Julian  prefect  of  the  east,  a  pe- 
tulant scorner  and  apostate  derider  of  Christians,  who 
having  broken  into  the  great  church  at  Antioch,  had 
treated  their  communion  plate  with  the  greatest  irre- 
verence and  contempt,  throwing  it  upon  the  ground, 
spurning,  and  sitting  upon  it,  and  after  all  carrying  it 
away  into  the  emperor's  exchequer,  was  immediately 
seized  with  a  loathsome  disease,  which  I  am  not  willing 
to  mention,  which,  within  a  few  days,  in  spite  of  all  the 
arts  of  physic,  put  an  end  to  his  miserable  life.  And 
Felix,  the  treasurer,  a  man  of  the  same  spirit  and  tem- 
per, and  engaged  with  him  in  the  same  design,  coming 
up  to  the  palace,  on  a  sudden  fell  down  upon  the  top  of 
the  steps  and  burst  asunder.  Ammianus  Marcellinus  ^ 
himself  confessing  that  he  died  of  a  sudden  flux  of  blood. 
Others  there  were,  who  about  that  time  came  to  wretch- 
ed and  untimely  ends,  but  these  two  only  are  particu- 
larlv  noted  by  Chrysostom.  Examples,  which  it  is  pro- 
bable had  put  an  awe  and  restraint  upon  him. 

11.  But  evilmenwax  worse  and  worse.  Julian,  how- 
ever awed  at  present,  yet  his  rage  quickly  found  a 
vent,  which  all  his  philosophy  could  not  stop.  Vexed  •"  to 
see  the  Christians  pay  so  solemn  a  veneration  to  the 
martyr,  and  especially  stung  with  the  hymns  which  the 
Christians  sung,  the  very  next  day  he  gave  order,  against 
the  advice  of  his  privy  council,  to  Salust,  the  prefect,  to 
persecute  the  Christians,  many  of  whom  were  accord- 
inglv  apprehend  and  cast  into  prison.  And  among  the 
rest  one  Theodorus,  a  youth,  was  caught  up  in  the 
streets,  and  put  upon  the  rack,  his  flesh  torn  oft' with  iron 
pincers,  scourged  and  beaten,  and  when  no  tortures 
could  shake  his  constancy,  or  so  much  as  move  his  pa- 
tience, he  was  at  length  dismissed.  Rufinus  afterwards 
met  with  this  Theodorus,   and  asking  him  whether  ii; 

h  Lib.  23.  p.  1641.     c  Socr.  c.  19  p.  191.  Soijoin.  ctTheod.  ibid. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  BABYLAS.  441 

the  midst  of  his  torments  he  felt  any  pain,  he  told  him, 
at  first  he  was  a  little  sensible,  but  that  one  in  tlie  shape 
of  a  voung  man  stood  by  him,  who  gently  wiped  oft  the 
sweat  from  his  face,  refreshed  him  with  cold  water,  and 
supported  his  spirit  with  present  consolations,  so  that  his 
rack  was  rather  a  pleasure  than  a  torment  to  him.  But 
to  return. 

12.  Heaven  showed  itself  not  well  pleased  with  the 
proceedings  of  the  emperor.  For  immediately  the  tem- 
ple of  Apollo  in  the  Daphne  took  fire,  which  in  a  few 
hours  burnt  the  famed  image  of  the  god,  and  reduced  the 
temple,  excepting  only  the  walls  and  pillars,  into  ashes. 
This  the  Christians  ascribed  to  the  divine  vengeance,  the 
gentiles  imputed  it  to  the  malice  of  the  Christians;  and 
though  the  priests  and  warders  of  the  temple  were  rack- 
ed to  make  them  say  so,  yet  could  they  not  be  brought 
to  aflirm  any  more,  than  that  it  was  fired  by  a  light  from 
heaven.  This  conflagration  is  mentioned  not  only  by 
Christian  writers,  but  by  **  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  and 
by  "^  Julian  himself,  but  especially  by  Libanius,  the  ora- 
tor, who,  in  an  oration  on  purpose  made  to  the  people, 
elegantly  bewails  its  unhappy  fate;  whose  discourse  St. 
Chrysostom  takes  to  task,  and  makes  witty  and  eloquent 
remarks  upon  it.  If  the  reader  ask  what  became  of  Ba- 
bylas's  remains  after  all  this  noise  and  bustle,  they  were 
entombed  within  the  city,  in  a  church  dedicated  to  his 
name  and  memory,  and  in  after-ages  are  ^  said  to  have 
been  translated  (by  some  Christian  princes,  probably, 
during  their  wars  in  the  holy  land)  to  Cremona  in  Italy, 
where  ho\v  oft  they  have  been  honourably  reposed,  and 
with  how  much  pomp  and  ceremonious  veneration  they 
are  still  entertained,  they  who  are  curious  after  such 
things  may  inquire. 

d  Lib.  22.  p .  1629.    e  Loc.  supr.  cit.    f.  Vid.  Bolland.  ad  Jan.  XZIV.  p.  580. 

3    K 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN, 

BISHOP  OF  CARTHAGE. 


His  birth-place.  The  nobility  of  his  family  exploded.  The  confounding 
him  with  another  Cyprian,  bishop  of  Antioch.  These  two  vastly  dis- 
tinct. St.  Cyprian's  education.  His  professing  rhetoric.  His  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  by  the  persuasions  of  Caecilius.  Their  mutual  en- 
dearment. His  great  charity  to  the  poor.  His  baptism.  Made 
presbyter,  and  bishop  of  Carthage.  His  modest  declining  the  honour. 
His  proscription,  recess,  and  care  of  his  church  during  that  retire- 
ment. The  case  of  the  lapsed.  A  brief  account  of  the  rise  of  the 
Novatian  sect.  The  fierceness  of  the  persecution  at  Carthage  under 
Decius.  The  courage  and  patience  of  the  Christians.  Cyprian's  re- 
turn, A  synod  at  Carthage  about  the  case  of  the  lapsed,  and  the  cause 
of  Novatian.  Their  determination  of  these  matters.  Ratified  by  a 
synod  at  Rome  :  and  another  at  Antioch.  A  second  synod  about  the 
bame  affair.  Moderation  in  the  ecclesiastic  discipline  used  in  the  time 
of  persecution.  The  great  pestilence  at  Carthage.  The  misera- 
ble state  of  that  city.  The  mighty  charity  of  St.  Cyprian  and  the 
Christians  at  that  time.  These  evils  charged  upon  the  Christians. 
St.  Cyprian's  vindication  of  them.  The  time  of  baptizing  infants  de- 
termined in  a  synod.  Another  synod  to  decide  the  case  of  the  Spanish 
bishops  that  had  lapsed  in  the  time  of  persecution.  The  controversy 
concerning  the  re-baptizing  those  who  had  been  baptized  by  heretics. 
This  resolved  upon  in  a  synod  of  87  African  bishops.  The  immoderate 
heats  between  Cyprian,  Firmilian,  and  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome, 
about  this  matter.  Cyprian  arraigned  before  the  proconsul.  His  re- 
solute carriage.  His  banishment  to  Curubis.  His  martyrdom  fore- 
told him  by  a  vision.  His  letters  during  his  exile.  The  severe  usage 
of  the  Christians  His  withdrawment,  and  why.  His  apprehension 
and  examination  before  the  proconsul.  The  sentence  passed  upon  him. 
His  martyrdom,  and  place  of  burial.  His  piety,  fidelity,  chasiity,  hu- 
mility, modesty,  charity,  &c.  His  natural  parts.  His  learning,  where- 
in it  mainly  consisted.  The  poliieness  and  elegancy  of  his  style.  His 
quick  proficiency  in  Christian  studies.  His  frequent  converse  vith 
TertulUan's  writings.  His  bcoks.  Tlie  excellency  of  tho^e  ascribed 
to  him.     The  great  honour.^  done  toLils  memory. 


444  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

1.  THASCIUS  Ccccilius  Cyprian  was  born  at  Car- 
thage, in  the  declining  part  of  the  foregoing  saeculum, 
though  the  particular  year  cannot  be  ascertained.  Who 
or  what  his  parents  were,  is  unknown.  "Cardinal  Baro- 
nius  (not  to  mention  others)  makes  him  descended  of  a 
rich  honourable  family,  and  himself  to  have  been  one  of 
the  chief  of  the  senatorian  order  ;  and  this  upon  the  au- 
thority of  Nazianzen,''  who  indeed  affirms  it  ;  but  then 
certainly  forgot  that  in  very  few  lines  before^  he  had  ex- 
ploded as  a  fabulous  mistake,  the  confounding  our  Cyp- 
rian with  another  of  the  same  name,  of  whom  Nazianzen 
unquestionably  meant  it.  For  besides  our  Carthaginian 
Cyprian,  there  was  another  born  at  Antioch,  a  person  of 
great  learning  and  eminency,  who  travelled  through 
Greece,  Phrjgia,  Egypt,  India,  Chaldcea,  and  where  not  ■? 
famous  for  the  study  and  the  arts  of  magic,  by  which  he 
sought  to  compass  the  affections  of  Justina,  a  noble 
Christian  virgin  at  Antioch,  by  whose  prayers  and  en- 
deavours he  was  converted,  baptized,  made  first  sexton, 
then  deacon  of  that  church,  was  endowed  with  miracu- 
lous powers,  and  afterwards  consecrated  bishop  of  that 
church,  (though  I  confess  I  find  not  his  name  in  the  cata- 
logue of  the  bishops  of  that  see,  drawn  up  by  Nicephorus 
of  Constantinople)  and  at  last  having  been  miserably  tor- 
mented at  Antioch,  was  sent  to  Dioclesian  himself,  then 
at  Nicomedia,  by  whose  command  together  with  Justi- 
na, sent  thither  also  at  the  same  time  from  Damascus, 
he  was  beheaded.  The  history  of  all  which  was  largely 
described  in  three  books  in  verse,  written  by  the  noble 
empress  Eudocia,  the  excerpta  whereof  are  still  extant 
in  'Photius.  This  account  Simeon  the  metaphrast,  Ni- 
cephorus, and  the  later  Greeks  without  any  scruple  at- 
tribute to  St.  Cyprian  of  Carthage,  nay  some  of  them 
make  him  to  suffer  martyrdom  under  the  Decian  perse- 
cution. Though  in  the  whole  mistake  the  more  to  be 
pardoned,  in  that  not  only  Prudentius,  but  Nazianzen 
had  long  before  manifestly  confounded  these  two  enii- 

a  Ad  ^nn.  250.  n.  V.  vid.  not.  ud  M:'rtvroJ.  Rom.  Sopt.  26.  p. 600. 
b  Orut.  in  bud.  S.  C-  [jr  p,  275.  c  Cod.  CLZXXIV.  col.  416. 


THE  Lif'E  of  ST.  CYPRIAN.  445 

nent  persons,  who  finding  several  passages  of  the  Anti- 
ochian  Cyprian  very  near  akin  to  the  other,  carried  all 
the  rest  along  with  them,  as  two  persons  very  like  are 
oit  mistaken  the  one  for  the  other.  To  prove  that  our 
C}-prian  was  not  him  described  by  Nazianzen;  were  a 
vain  and  needless  attempt,  the  accounts  concerning  theiil 
being  so  vastsy  different,  both  as  to  their  country,  educa- 
tion, manner  of  life,  episcopal  charge,  the  time,  place, 
and  companions  of  their  death,  that  it  is  plainly  impossi- 
ble to  reconcile  them.     But  of  this  enough. 

2.  St.  Cyprian's  education  was  ingenuous,*^  polished 
by  study  and  the  liberal  arts,  though  he  principally  ad- 
dicted himself  to  the  study  of  oratory  and  eloquence, 
wherein  he  made  such  vast  improvements,  that  publicly 
and  with  great  applause,  he  taught  rhetoric  at  ^Carthage. 
All  which  time  he  lived  in  great  pomp  and  plenty,  in 
honour  and  power,  his  garb  splendid,  his  retinue  stately  ; 
never  going  abroad  (as  himself  tells  us*^)  but  he  was 
thronged  with  a  crowd  of  clients  and  followers.  The 
far  greatest  part  of  his  life  he  passed  among  the  errors 
of  the  Gentile  religion,  and  was  at  least  upon  the  borders 
of  old  age  when  he  was  rescued  from  the  vassalage  of  in- 
veterate customs,  the  darkness  of  idolatry,  and  the  er- 
rours  and  vices  of  his  past  life,  as  ^himself  intimates  in 
his  epistle  to  Donatus.  He  was  converted  to  Christianity 
by  the  arguments  and  importunities  of  Ccccilius,*'  a  pres- 
byter of  Carthage,  a  person  whom  ever  after  he  loved  as 
a  friend,  and  reverenced  as  a  father.  And  so  mutual  an 
endearment  was  there  between  them,  that  Cyprian  in 
honour  to  him,  assumed  the  title  of  Cascilius  ;  and  the 
other  at  his  death  made  him  his  executor,  and  committed 
his  wife  and  children  to  his  sole  care  and  tutelage.  Be- 
ing yet  a  catechumen,'  he  gave  early  instances  of  a  great 
and  generous  piety  :  professed  a  strict  and  severe  tem- 
perance and  sobriety,  accounting  it  one  of  the  best  pre- 
parations for  the  entertainment  of  the  truth,  to  subdue 

d  Pont.  Di.ic.  in  vit.  Cypr.  non  lonpe  ab  init. 
e  Hier.  de  script,  in  Cvpriano.  f  Ad  Donat.  Epist.  1.  p.  2. 

If  Ubi  supra.  'h  Pont.  itld.  p.  I;;:.  i  Id.  ibid.  p.  11. 


446  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

and  tread  down  all  irregular  appetites  and  inclinations. 
His  estate,  at  least  the  greatest  part  of  it,  he  sold,  and 
distributed  it  among  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  at  once 
triumphing  over  the  love  of  the  world,  and  exercising 
that  great  duty  of  mercy  and  charity,  which  God  values 
above  all  the  ritual  devotions  in  the  world.  So  that  by 
the  speedy  progress  of  his  piety  (says  Pontius  his  friend 
and  deacon)  he  became  almost  a  perfect  Christian,  before 
he  had  learnt  the  rules  of  Christianity. 

3.  Being  fully  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  he  was  baptized,^  when  the  mighty  assistances 
which  he  received  from  above,  perfectly  dispelled  all 
doubts,  enlightened  all  obscurities,  and  enabled  him 
with  ease  to  do  things  which  before  he  looked  upon  as 
impossible  to  be  discharged.  Not  long  after,  he  was 
called  to  the  inferior  ecclesiastic  offices,  and  then  ad- 
vanced to  the  degree  of  presbyter,  wherein  he  so  admira- 
bly behaved  himself,  that  he  was  quickly  summoned  to 
the  hijjhest  order  and  honour  in  the  church.  Donatus 
his  immediate  predecessor  in  the  see  of  Carthage  (as  his 
own  words'  seem  to  imply)  being  dead,  the  general  vogue 
])oth  of  clergy  and  people  (Felicissimus  the  presbyter 
and  some  veiy  few  of  his  party  only  dissenting'")  was  for 
Cyprian  to  succeed  him.  But  the  great  modesty  and 
humilit}^  of  the  man  made  him  fly"  from  the  first  ap- 
proaches of  the  news,  he  thought  himself  unfit  for  so 
weighty  arid  honourable  an  employment,  and  therefore 
desired  that  a  more  worthy  person,  and  some  of  liis  se- 
niors in  the  faith  might  possess  the  place.  His  declining 
it  did  but  set  so  much  the  keener  an  edge  upon  the  desires 
and  expectations  of  the  people  ;  his  doors  were  immedi- 
ately crowded,  and  all  passages  of  escape  blocked  up  ; 
he  would  indeed  have  fled  out  at  the  window,  but  finding 
it  in  vain,  he  unwillingly  yielded,  the  people  in  the  mean 
while  Impatiently  waiting,  divided  between  hope  and 
fear,  till  seeing  him  come  forth,  they  received  him  with 
an  universal  joy  and  satisfaction.     This  charge  he  en- 

k  Epist.  1.  p.  2,  S  1  Epist.  55.  p.  82.  m  E;ist.  40.  p.  53. 

n  P.  DUc.  p.  12-. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYFTRIAN.  447 

tered  upon  Ann.  248,  as  himself  "plainly  intimates,  when 
in  his  letter  to  Cornelius,  he  tells  him  he  had  been 
four  years  bishop  of  Carthage  :  which  epistle  was  writ- 
ten  not  long  after  the  beginning  of  Cornelius's  pontifi- 
cate, Ann.  251.  It  was  the  third  consulship  of  Philip 
the  emperor ;  a  memorable  time,  it  being  the  thousandth 
year  ab  urbe  condita,  when  the  Ludi  S^culares  were  ce- 
lebrated at  Rome,  with  all  imaginable  magnificence  and 
solemnity.  Though  indeed  it  was  then  but  the  decli- 
ning part  oi  \\\t  Annus  Millesimus,  which  began  with  the 
Palilia,  about  April  21,  of  the  foregoing  year,  and  ended 
with  the  Palilia  of  this  :  whence  in  the  ancient  coins  of 
this  emperor,  these  secular  sports  are  sometimes  ascribed 
to  his  second,  sometimes  to  his  third  consulship,  as  com- 
mencing in  the  one,  and  being  completed  in  the  other. 

4.  The  entrance  upon  his  care  and  government  was 
calm  and  peaceable,  ^but  he  had  not  been  long  in  it  be- 
fore a  storm  overtook  him,  and  upon  what  occasion  I 
know  not,  he  was  publicly^  proscribed  by  the  name  of 
Cascilius  Cyprian,  bishop  of  the  Christians,  and  every 
man  commanded  not  to  hide  or  conceal  his  goods.  And 
not  satisfied  with  this,  they  frequently  called  out,  that  he 
might  be  thrown  to  the  lions.  So  that  being  warned  by 
a  divine  admonition  and  command  from  God,  (as  he 
pleads  for  himself)  and  lest  by  his  resolute  defiance  of 
the  public  sentence,  he  should  provoke  his  adversaries'* 
to  fall  more  severely  upon  the  whole  church,  he  thought 
good  at  present  to  withdraw  himself,  hoping  that  malice 
would  cool  and  die,  and  the  fire  go  out  when  the  fuel 
that  kindled  it  was  taken  away.  During  this  recess, 
though  absent  in  body,  yet  was  he  present  in  spirit,  sup- 
plying the  want  of  his  presence  by  letters, ■"  (whereof  he 
wrote  no  less  than  38)  by  pious  counsels,  grave  admo- 
nitions, frequent  reproofs,  earnest  exhortations,  and  es- 
pecially by  hearty  prayers  to  Heaven  for  the  welfare  and 
prosperity  of  the  church.     That  which  created  him  the 

o  Epist.  55.  p.  80.    p  Epist,  69.  p.  117.  Ep.  55.  p.  80.vid.Pont.de  vit.Cj-pr.  p  12. 
t.  EpIst.  9.  p.  22.  Ep'st.  14.  p.  27.  r  Loc.  <iitat. 


448  THE  LIFE  OF  3T.  CYPRIAN, 

greatest  trouble,  was  the  case  of  the  lapsed,  tvhom  some 
presbyters  without  the  knowledg^e  ?nid  consent  of  ihe 
bishop,  rashly  admitted  to  the  comrn^union  oi  the  chiircU 
upon  ver^'  easy  terms.  Cyprian,  a  stiff  assertor  of  eccle-r 
siastic  discipline,  and  the  rights  of  his  place,  would  no-t; 
brook  this,  but  by  several  letters  not  only  complained  of 
it,  but  endeavoured  to  reform  it,  not  sparing  the  mar^ 
tyrs  themselves,  v/ho  presuming  upon  their  great  merits 
in  the  cause  of  religion,  took  upon  them  to  give  libels 
of  peace  to  the  lapsed,  whereby  they  were  again  taken 
into  communion,  sooner  than  the  rules  of  the  church  did 
allow. 

5.  This  remissness  of  discipline,  and  easy  admission  of 
penitents,  gave  occasion  to  Novatns,  one  of  the  presby- 
ters of  Carthage  to  start  aside,  and  draw  a  faction  after 
him,  denying  any  place  to  the  lapsed,  though  penitent, 
in  the  peace  and  communion  of  the  church  ;  not  that 
they  absolutely  excluded  them  the  mercy  and  pardon  of 
God  (for  they  left  them  to  the  sentence  of  ihe  divine 
tribunal)  but  maintained  that  the  church  had  no  power 
to  absolve  them  that  once  lapsed  after  baptism,  and  to 
receive  them  again  into  communion.  Having  suffici- 
ently imbroiledthe  church  at  home  (where  he  was  in 
danger  to  be  excommunicated  by  Cyprian  for  h's  scan- 
dalous, irregular,  and  unpeaceabie  practices)  over  he 
goes  with  some  of  his  party  to  Rome,  where  by  U  pre- 
tence of  uncommon  sanctity  anc^I  severity,  besides  sorn^ 
confessors  lately  delivered  out  of  prison,  he  seduced 
Novatianus  (who  by  the  Greek  fathers  is  almost  perpetin- 
ally  confounded  with  Novatus)  a  presbyter  of  the  Ra- 
man church,  a  man  of  an  insolent  and  ambitious  temper, 
and  who  had  attempted  to  thrust  himself  into  that  chair. 
Him  the  party  procures  by  clancular  arts  and  uncanoni- 
cal  means  to  be  consecrated  bishop,  and  then  set  hifn  up 
against  Cornelius,  lately  ordained  bishop  of  that  see^ 
whom  they  peculiarly  charged  'with  holding  a  ccmmu- 
nion  with  Trophimus  and  some  others  of  the  Thurlpcati^ 
who  had  done  sacrifice  in  the  late  persecution.     Which 

s  Vid.  Epist.  55.  ad  Antor.ian.  p,  f:iCi 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  44.9 

though  plausibly  pretended,  was  yet  a  false  allegation  ; 
Trophimus  and  his  party  not  being  taken  in,  till  by 
great  humility^  and  a  public  penance  they  had  given 
satisfaction  to  the  church,  nor  he  then  suffered  to  com- 
municate any  otherwise  than  in  a  lay  capacity.  Being 
disappointed  in  their  designs,  they  now  openly  show 
thcmseh  es  in  their  own  colours,  separate  from  thechurch, 
which  they  charge  with  looseness  and  licentiousness  in 
admitting  scandalous  offenders,  and  by  way  of  distinc- 
tion, styling  themselves  Cathari^  the  pure  undcfiled  par- 
ty, those  who  kept  themselves  from  all  society  with  the 
lapsed,  or  them  that  communicated  with  them.  Here- 
upon they  were  on  all  hands  opposed  by  private  persons, 
and  condemned  by  public  synods,  and  cried  down  by 
the  common  vote  of  the  church,  probably  not  so  much 
upon  the  account  of  their  different  sentiments  and  opi- 
nions in  point  of  pardon  of  sin,  and  ecclesiastical  penance 
(wherein  they  stood  not  at  so  wide  a  distance  from  the 
doctrine  and  practice  of  the  early  ages  of  the  church)  as 
for  their  insolent  and  domineering  temper,  their  proud 
and  surly  carriage,  their  rigorous  and  imperious  impo- 
sing their  way  upon  other  churches,  their  taking  upon 
them  by  their  own  pri\'ate  authority  to  judge,  censure, 
and  condemn  those  that  joined  not  with  them,  or  oppo- 
sed them,  their  bold  divesting  the  governors  of  the 
church  of  that  great  power  lodged  in  them,  of  remitting 
crimes  upon  repentance,  which  seem  to  have  been  the 
very  soul  and  spirit  of  the  Novatian  sect. 

6.  In  the  mean  while  the  persecution  under  Decius 
raged  with  an  uncontrolled  fury  over  the  African  pro- 
vinces, and  especially  at  Carthage,  concerning  which 
Cyprian  every  where"  gives  large  and  sad  accounts, 
whereof  this  the  sum.  They  were  scourged,  and  beaten, 
and  racked,  and  roasted,  and  their  fiesh  pulled  off  with 
burning  pincers,  beheaded  with  swords,  and  run  through 
with  spears,  more  instruments  of  torment  being  many 
times  employed  about  the  man  at  once,  than  there  were 

t  Ibid.  p.  69. 
n  Epist.  53.  p.  7S.  Epist.  7.  p.  16.  Epiit.  8.  p.  19  lib.  ad  Demetr.  p.  200. 

3    L 


450  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

limbs  and  members  of  his- body  :  they  were  spoiled  and 
plundered,  chained  and  imprisoned,  thrown  to  wild 
beasts,  and  burnt  at  the  stake.  And  when  they  had  run 
over  all  their  old  methods  of  execution,  they  studied  for 
more,  excogifat  7201ms  panas  ingeniosa  crudelitas,  as  he 
complains.  Nor  did  they  only  viuy,  but  repeat  the  tor- 
ments, and  where  one  ended  another  began  ;  they  tor- 
tured them  without  hopes  of  dying,  and  added  this  cru- 
elty to  ail  the  rest,  to  stop  them  in  their  journey  to  hea- 
ven ;  many  who  were  importunately  desirous  of  death, 
were  so  tortured,  that  they  might  not  die,  they  were  pur- 
posely kept  upon  the  rack,  that  they  might  die  by  piece- 
meals, that  their  pains  might  be  lingering,  and  their 
sense  of  them  without  intermission,  they  ^'Wt  them  no 
intervals,  or  times  of  respite,  unless  any  of  them  chanced 
to  give  them  the  slip  and  expire  in  the  midst  of  torments. 
All  which  did  but  render  their  faith  and  patience  more 
illustrious,  and  make  them  more  earnestly  long  for  Hea- 
ven. They  tired  out  their  tormentors,  and  overcame 
the  sharpest  engines  of  execution,  and  smiled  at  the 
busy  officers  that  were  raking  in  their  wounds,  and  \\'hen 
their  flesh  was  wearied,  their  faith  was  unconquerable. 
The  multitude  beheld  with  admiration  these  heavenly 
conflicts,  and  stood  astonished  to  hear  the  servants  of 
Christ  in  the  midst  of  all  this  with  an  unshaken  mind 
making  a  free  and  bold  confcsssion  of  him,  destitute  of 
any  external  succour,  but  armed  with  a  divine  power, 
and  defending  themselves  with  the  shield  of  faith. 

7.  Two  full  years  St.  Cyprian  had  remained  in  his  re- 
tirement, when  the  persecution  being  somewhat  abated 
by  the  death  of  Decius,  he  returned  to  Carthage,  Ann. 
251,  where  he  set  himself  to  reform  disorders,  and  to 
compose  the  differences  that  disturbed  his  church.  For 
which  purpose  he  convened  a  synod  of  his  neighbour 
bishops  to  consult  about  the  cause  of  the  lapsed.  Who 
were  no  sooner  met,'  but  there  arrived  messengers  with 
letters  from  Novatian,  signifying  his  ordination  to  the 
s'ee  of  Rome,  and  bringing  an  accusation  and  charge 

V  Ad  Gomel-  Epist.  41.  p.  55. 


THE  LIFE  OF   ST.  CYPRIAN.  451 

against  Cornelius.  But  the  men  no  sooner  appeared, 
but  were  disowned,  and  rejected  from  coniniunion,  es- 
pecially after  that  Pompeius  and  Stephanus  were  an  ived 
from  Rome,  and  had  brought  a  true  account  and  rektion 
of  the  case.  The  Synod,  therefore,  advised  and  charged 
them  to  desist  from  their  turbulent  and  schisniaiicai  pro- 
ceedings, not  to  rend  the  church  by  propagating  a  perni- 
cious faction,  that  it  Mas  their  best  way  and  the  safest 
counsel  they  could  take,  to  show  themselves  true  Chris- 
tians, by  returning  back  to  the  pi-^ace  of  the  church.  As 
for  the  lapsed,  ha\  ing  discussed  their  case*  according  to 
the  rules  of  the  holy  scripture,  they  concluded  upon  this 
wise  and  moderate  expedient,  that  neither  all  hopes  of 
peace  and  communion  should  be  denied  them,  lest  look- 
ing upon  themselves  as  in  a  desperate  case,  they  should 
start  back  into  a  total  apostacy  from  the  faith,  nor  yet 
the  censures  of  the  church  be  so  far  relaxed,  as  rashly  to 
admit  them  to  communion  :  but  that  the  causes  being 
examined,  and  regard  being  had  to  the  will  of  the  delin- 
quents, and  the  aggravations  of  particular  cases, their  time  of 
penance  should  be  accordingly  prolonged,  and  the  divine 
clemency  be  obtained  by  acts  of  a  great  sQrrow  and  re- 
pentance. Their  meaning  is,  that  the  lapsed  being  of 
several  sorts,  should  be  treated  according  to  the  nature 
of  their  crimes  ;  the  Libellatic'i^  who  had  only  purchased 
libels  of  security  and  dismission  from  the  heathen  ma- 
gistrate to  excuse  them  from  doing  sacrifice  in  time  of 
persecution,  should  have  a  shorter  time  of  penance  as- 
signed them,  the  Sacrijicati  who  had  actually  sacrificed 
to  idols,  should  not  be  taken  in  till  they  had  expiated 
their  offence  by  a  very  long  penance,  and  (as  they  some- 
times call  it)  satisfaction.  This  Synodical  determination'' 
was  presently  sent  to  Rome,  and  ratified  by  Cornelius 
and  a  counsel  of  sixty  bishops,  and  above  as  many  pres- 
-byters  and  deacons,  concluding  (and  the  decree  examin- 
ed, assented  to,  and  published  by  the  bishops  in  their  se- 
veral provinces)  that  Novatus  and  his  insolent  party,  and 
all  that  adhered  to  his  inhuman  and  merciless  opinion, 

w  Ad  Anton.  Epist.  5S  p  67.  x  W.  iUid.  Errseb.  \.  6.  43.  p.  242. 


452  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN, 

should  be  excluded  the  communion  of  the  church  ;  but 
that  the  brethren,  who  had  fallen  into  that  calamity, 
should  be  gently  dealt  with,  and  restored  by  methods  of 
repentance.  About  the  same  time  there  was  a  synod 
also  held  at  Antioch  by  the  eastern  bishops  about  the 
same  affair.  For  so  Dionysius,  ^  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
in  his  letter  to  Cornelius  of  Rome,  tells  him,  that  he  had 
been  summoned  by  Helenus,  bishop  of  Tarsus,  Firmi- 
lian  of  Cappadocia,  and  Theoctistus  of  Caesareain  Pales- 
tine, to  meet  in  council  at  Antioch,  to  suppress  the  en- 
deavours of  some,  who  sought  there  to  establish  the  No- 
vatian  schism. 

8.  The  next  year,  May  XV.  A?t?i.  CCLII.  began  an- 
other ^  council  at  Carthage  about  this  matter,  and 
wherein  they  steered  the  same  course  they  had  done 
before,  being  rather  swayed  to  moderate  counsels  herein, 
because  frequently  admonished  by  divine  revelations  of 
an  approaching  persecution,  and  therefore  did  not  think 
it  prudent  and  reasonable,  that  men  should  be  left  naked 
and  unarmed  in  the  day  of  battle,  but  that  they  might  be 
able  to  defend  themselves  with  the  shield  of  Christ's 
body  and  blood.  For  how  should  they  ever  hope  to 
persuade  them  to  shed  their  own  blood  in  the  cause  of 
Christ,  if  they  denied  them  the  benefit  of  his  blood?  how 
could  it  be  expected  they  should  be  ready  to  drink  the 
cup  of  martyrdom,  whom  the  church  debarred  the  pri- 
vilege to  drink  of  the  cup  of  Christ?  While  peace  and 
tranquillity  smiled  upon  the  church,  they  protracted  the 
time  of  penance,  and  allowed  not  the  Sacrijicatt  to  be 
readmitted,  but  at  the  hour  of  death.  But  that  now  the 
enemy  w^as  breaking  in  upon  them,  and  Christians  were 
to  be  prepared  and  heartened  on  for  suffering,  and  en- 
couragement to  be  given  to  those  who,  by  the  sincerity 
of  their  repentance,  had  showed  themselves  ready  to  re- 
sist unto  blood,  and  to  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith. 
This  they  did  not  to  patronise  the  lazy,  but  excite  the 
diligent,  the  church's  peace  being  granted  not  in  order  to 

'^  y  An.  Euscb.  H.  Eccl.l.  6.  c.  46.  p.  247,  z  Epist.  Synod,  ad  Cornel.  Ep. 

54.  p.  r6.  et  Ep.  55.  p.  82. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  45i 

case  and  softness,  but  to  conflict  and  contention.  And 
if  any  improved  the  indulgence  to  worse  purposes,  they 
did  but  cheat  themselves,  and  such  they  remitted  to  the 
divine  tribunal.  At  this  synod  appeared  one  *  Privatus, 
who  having  some  years  since  been  condemned  for  here- 
sy and  other  crimes  by  a  council  of  ninety  bishops,  de- 
sired that  his  cause  might  be  heard  over  again,  but  was 
rejected  by  the  synod,  whereupon  gathering  a  party  of  the 
lapsed,  or  the  schismatics,  he  ordained,  at  Carthage,  one 
Fortunatus  bishop,  giving  out  that  no  less  than  live  and 
twenty  bishops  were  present  at  the  consecration.  But 
the  notorious  falsehood  and  vanity  of  their  pretences 
being  discovered,  they  left  the  place  and  fled  over  to 
Rome. 

9.  About  this  time  happened  that  miserable  plague, 
that  so  much  afflicted  the  Roman  world,  v.herein  Car- 
thage had  a  very  deep  share.  ^  Vast  multitudes  were 
swept  away  every  day,  the  fatal  messenger  knocking,  as 
he  wTnt  along,  at  every  door.  The  streets  were  filled 
with  the  carcasses  of  the  dead,  which  seemed  to  implore 
the  assistance  of  the  living,  and  to  challenge  it  as  a  right 
by  the  laws  of  nature  and  humanity,  as  that  which  shortly 
themselves  might  stand  in  need  of.  But,  alas,  all  in  vain, 
every  one  trembled  and  fled,  and  shifted  for  himself,  de- 
serted their  dearest  friends  and  nearest  relations  ;  none 
considered  what  might  be  his  own  case,  nor  how  reason- 
able it  was  that  he  should  do  for  another,  what  he  would 
another  should  do  for  him,  and  if  any  staid  behind,  it 
was  only  to  make  a  prey.  In  this  calamitous  and  tragic 
scene,  St.  Cyprian  calls  the  Christians  together,  instructs 
them  in  the  duties  of  mercy  and  charity,  and  from  the 
precepts  and  examples  of  the  holy  scripture,  shows  them 
what  a  mighty  influence  they  have  to  oblige  God  to  us; 
that  it  was  no  wonder  if  their  charity  extended  only  to 
their  own  party,  the  way  to  be  perfect,  and  to  be  Chris- 
tians indeed,  was  to  do  something  more  than  heathens 
and  publicans,  to  overcome  evil  with  good,  and  in  imitation 
of  the  divine  benignity,   to  love  our  enemies^  and  accord- 

a  Ibid.  p.  82-  b  Poat.  Diac.  in  vit.  Cv^jr.  j>.  15. 


454  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

ing  to  our  Lord's  advice,  to  pray  for  the  happiness  of 
them  that  persecute  us  ;  that  God  constantly  makes  his 
sun  to  rise  and  his  rain  to  fall  upon  the  seeds  and  plants, 
not  only  for  the  advantage  of  his  own  children,  but  of  all 
other  men ;  that  therefore  they  should  act  as  became  the 
nobility  of  their  new  birth,  and  imitate  the  example  of 
such  a  Father,  who  professed  themselves  to  be  his  chil- 
dren. Persuaded  by  this,  and  much  more  that  he  dis- 
coursed to  the  same  effect,  enough  to  convince  the  very 
gentiles  themselves,  they  presently  divided  their  help 
according  to  each  one's  rank  and  quality.  Those  who 
by  reason  of  poverty  could  contribute  nothing  to  the 
charge,  did  what  was  infinitely  more,  personally  labour- 
ed in  the  common  calamity,  an  assistance  infinitely  be- 
yond all  other  contributions.  Indeed  every  one  was  am- 
bitious to  engage  under  the  conduct  of  such  a  comman- 
der, and  in  a  service  wherein  they  might  so  eminently 
approve  themselves  to  God  the  Father,  and  Christ  the 
Judge  of  all,  and  in  the  meantime  to  so  pious  and  good  a 
bishop.  And  by  this  large  and  abundant  charity  great 
advantage  redounded  not  to  themselves  only,  who  were 
of  the  household  of  faith,  but  universally  to  all.  And  that 
he  might  not  be  wanting  to  any,  he  penned  at  this  time 
his  excellent  discourse  concerning  Mortality,  wherein  he 
so  eloquently  teaches  a  Christian  to  triumph  over  the 
fears  of  death,  and  shows  how  little  reason  there  is  exces- 
sively to  mourn  for  those  friends  and  relations,  that  are 
taken  from  us. 

10.  This  horrible  pestilence,  together  with  the  wars, 
which  of  late  had,  and  even  then  did,  overrun  the  em- 
pire, the  gentiles  generally  charged  upon  the  Christian 
religion,  as  that  for  which  the  gods  v.'ere  implacably  an- 
gry with  the  world.  To  vindicate  it  from  this  common 
objection,  Cyprian  addiesses  himself  in  a  discourse  to 
Demetrian  the  proconsul,  wherein  he  proves  tiint  these 
evils  that  came  upon  the  world,  could  not  be  laid  at  the 
door  of  Christianity,  assigning  other  reasons  of  them, 
and  among  the  rest  their  wild  and  brutish  rage  against 
the  Christians,  which  had  provoked  tlie  Deity  to  bring 
these  calamities  upon  them,  as  a  just  punishment  of  their 


'^. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  455 

folly  and  madness  in  persecuting  a  religion,  so  innocent 
and  dear  to  heaven  '  The  persecution  being  over,  a 
controversy  arose  concerning  the  time  of  baptizing  in- 
fants, started  especially  by  Fidus,  ''  an  African  bishop, 
who  asserted  that  baptism  was  not  to  be  administered  on 
the  third  or  fourth,  but  as  circumcision  under  the  Jewish 
state,  to  be  deferred  till  the  eighth  day.  St.  Cyprian,  in 
a  synod  of  sixty-six  bishops,  determined  this  question, 
that  it  was  not  necessary  to  be  deferred  so  long,  nor  the 
grace  and  mercy  of  God  to  be  denied  to  any  as  soon  as 
born  into  the  world;  that  it  was  their  universal  sentence 
and  resolution,  that  none  ought  to  be  prohibited  baptism 
and  the  grace  of  God  ;  w^hich,  as  it  was  to  be  observed 
and  retained  towards  all,  so  much  more  towards  infants 
and  new-born  children.  Not  long  after  which,  another 
council  was  held  by  *■  Cyprian  (importuned  thereunto  by 
the  bishops  of  Spain)  to  consult  concerning  the  case  of 
Basilides,  bishop  of  Asturica,  and  Martial,  bishop  of 
Emerita  in  Spain,  who  had  lapsed  into  the  most  horrible 
idolatry  in  the  late  persecution,  and  yet  still  retained 
their  places  in  the  church.  The  synod  resolved,  that 
they  were  fallen  from  their  episcopal  order,  and  the  very 
lowest  degree  of  the  ministry,  and  that  upon  their  repent- 
ance they  were  to  be  restored  to  no  more  than  the  capa- 
city of  laics  in  the  communion  of  the  church. 

11.  In  this  synod,  or  another  called  not  long  after,  the 
famous  contest  about  rebaptizing  those  who  had  been 
baptized  by  heretics,  received  its  first  approbation.  It 
had  been  some  time  since,  by  occasion  of  the  Monta- 
nists  and  Novatians,  canvassed  in  the  eastern  parts,  thence 
it  flew  over  to  Numidia,  by  the  bishops  whereof  it  had 
been  brought  before  Cyprian,  and  the  council  at  Carthage, 
who  determined  that  the  thing  was  necessary  to  be  ob- 
served, and  that  this  was  no  novel  sentence,  but  had  been 


c  Exoritur  uUio  violati  nominis  Christiani,  et  usquequo  ad  profligandas  e»T. 
clesias  edicta  Decii  cucurrerunt,  ciitenus  incredibilium  morborum  pestis  ex- 
tenditur.  Nulla  fere  provircia  Komana,  nulla  civius,  iitilla  doiniis  fiiit,  qviae 
noil  illag-onerali  pestileiuia  correpta  atque  vastata  sit.  P.  Orosius  Hist,  adv. 
Pag-ati.  i.  7.  c.  21.  fol.  310.  p.  2. 

d  Vid.  Epist.  Synod.  a<l  Fid.  Ep,  59.  p.  94.        e  Epist.  63.  p.  112.  et  seq. 


4^6  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

so  decreed  by  his  predecessors,  and  the  thing  constantly- 
practised  and  observed  among  them,  as  he  assures  them 
in  the  Synodical  Epistle  ^  about  this  matter.  Among 
others,  to  whom  they  sent  their  decrees,  the  synod  ^  espe- 
cially wrote  to  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome  (who  had  so  far 
espoused  the  contrary  opinion,  as  to  excommunicate  the 
synod  at  Iconium,  for  making  the  like  determination)  him 
they  acquaint  with  the  sentence  they  had  passed,  and  the 
reasons  of  it,  which  they  hoped  he  also  would  assent  to, 
however  did  not  magisterial)}-  impose  it  upon  him,  every 
bishop  having  a  proper  authority  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  his  own  church,  whereof  he  is  to  render  an  account  to 
God.  Pope  Stephen  (with  whom  stood  a  great  part  of 
the  church)  liked  not  their  proceedings;  whereupon  a 
more  general  council  "was  summoned,  where  jio  less  than 
eighty-seven  bishops,  from  all  parts  of  the  African 
churches,  met  together,  who  unanimously  ratified  the 
former  sentence,  whose  names  and  particular  votes  are 
extant  in  the  ^  Acts  of  tliat  council.  But  numbers  made 
the  cause  never  the  better  resented  at  Rome,  and  indeed 
the  controversy  arose  to  that  height  between  these  two 
good  men,  that  Stephen  gave  Cyprian  very  rude  and  un- 
christian language,  '  st3'ling  him  Jake  Christy  false  apos- 
tle., deceitful  worker,  andsr.ch  like:  while  on  the  olher 
hand  Cyprian  treated  him  with  more  than  ordinary  sharp- 
ness and  severity,  charging  ^  him  with  pricle  and  imper- 
tinence,  and  self-contradiclion,  with  ignorance  and  indis- 
cretion, with  childishness  and  obstinacy,  and  other  ex- 
pressioiis,  far  enough  from  that  reverence  and  regard, 
which  St.  Stephen's  successors  claim  at  this  day.  And 
no  better  usage  did  he  find  from  Firmilian,  bishop  of 
Cassarea  in  Cappadocia,  as  may  be  seen  in  his  letter  to 
Cyprian,  '  charging  vStephen  with  sacriiicing  the  church's 
peace  to  a  petulant  humour,  where  inhumanity,  auda- 
ciousness, insolence,  wickedness,  are  some  of  the  cha- 
racters bestowed  upon  him.     A  great  instance  how  far 

f  Epist.  69.. p.  117.         g-'Epist.  72.  p.  101.         Apud  Cyr.  p.  282.  et  concil. 
Tom.  1    ci;l.  r86.  edit,  ridviss.  i  Firmii.  Epist.  ad  Cypr.  p.  160.  k  Ad 

Pompci.  Epist.  74.  p.  129.  i  Apud  Cypr.  7.  llo. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  457 

passion  and  prejudice  may  transport  wise  and  good  men 
beyond  the  merits  of  the  cause,  and  what  the  laws  of 
kindness  and  charity  do  allow.  I  note  no  more  con- 
cerning this,  than  that  Cyprian  and  his  party  ""  expressly 
disowned  anabaptism,  or  rebaptization,  they  freely  con- 
fessed that  there  was  but  one  baptism,  and  that  those 
who  came  over  from  heretical  churches,  where  they  had 
had  their  baptism,  were  not  rebaptized,  but  baptized, 
their  former  baptism  being  ipso  facto  null  and  invalid, 
and  they  did  then  receive,  what  (lawfully)  they  had  not 
before. 

12.  It  was  now  the  year  257,  when  Aspasius  Paternus, 
the  proconsul  of  Africa,  sent  °  for  Cyprian  to  appear  be- 
fore him,  telling  him,  that  he  had  lately  received  orders 
from  the  emperors  (Valerian  and  Gallienus)  command- 
ing that  all  that  were  of  a  foreign  religion,  should  wor- 
ship the  gods  according  to  the  Roman  rites,  desiring  to 
know  what  was  his  resolution  ?  Cyprian  answered,  / 
am  a  Christian  and  a  bishops  I  acknowledge  no  other  gods^ 
but  one  only  true  God,  who  inade  heaven  and  earth,  and  all 
that  therein  is.  This  is  he  whom  we  Christians  serve,  to 
whom  we  pray  day  arid  night,  for  ourselves  and  for  all 
men,  and  for  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  emperors. 
And  is  this  then  thy  resolution?  said  the  proconsul. 
That  resolution,  replied  the  martyr,  which  is  founded  in 
God,  cannot  be  altered.  Then  he  told  him,  that  he  was 
to  search  out  the  presbyters  as  well  as  bishops,  requiring 
him  to  discover  them.  To  which  Cyprian  gave  no  other 
answer,  than  that  according  to  their  own  laws,  they  were 
not  bound  to  be  informers.  The  proconsul  then  ac- 
quainted him,  that  he  was  commanded  to  prohibit  all 
private  assemblies,  and  to  proceed  with  capital  severity 
against  them  that  frequented  them.  W^hereat  the  good 
man  told  him  that  his  best  way  was  to  do  as  he  was 
commanded.  The  proconsul  finding  it  was  in  vain  to 
treat  with  him,  commanded  him  to  be  banished,  and  ac- 
cordingly he  was  transported  to  Curubis,  a  little  city, 
standing  in  a  peninsula,   within  the  Lybian  sea,  not  far 

m  Ad  Quint.  Epist.  71.  p.  119.      n  Act.  Pass.  S.  Cypri^oi.  ap.  Cypr.  p.  IS 

17,  24. 

3  ii 


458  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

from  Pentapolis  ;  a  "place  pleasant  and  delightful  enough, 
and  where  he  met  with  a  kind  and  a  courteous  usage,  was 
frequently  visited  by  the  brethren,  and  furnished  with  all 
conveniences  necessary  for  him. 

13.  But  the  greatest  entertainment  in  this  retirement, 
were  those  divine  and  heavenly  visions  with  which  God 
was  pleased  to  honour  him,  by  one  whereof  the  very  first 
day  of  his  coming  thither  he  was  particularly  forewarned 
of  his  approaching  martyrdom,  whereof  Pontius,  the  dea- 
con, who  accompanied  him  in  his  banishment,  gives  us 
this  account  from  the  martyr's  own  mouth. ^'  There  ap- 
peared to  him  as  he  was  going  to  rest,  a  young  man  of  a 
prodigious  stature,  who  seemed  to  lead  him  to  the  prae- 
torium,  and  to  present  him  to  the  proconsul,  then  sitting 
upon  the  bench  :  who  looking  upon  him,  began  to  write 
something  in  a  book,  which  the  young  man  who  looked 
over  his  shoulder,  read,  but  not  daring  to  speak,  intima- 
ted by  signs  what  it  was  :  for  extending  one  of  his  hands 
at  length,  he  made  a  cross  stroke  over  it  with  the  other, 
by  w^hich  Cyprian  presently  guessed  the  manner  of  his 
death.  Whereupon  he  importunately  begged  of  the  pro- 
consul but  one  day's  respite  to  dispose  his  affairs,  and 
partly  by  the  pleasingness  of  the  judge's  countenance, 
partly  by  the  signs  which  the  young  man  made  of  what 
the  proconsul  was  noting  in  his  book,  he  immediately 
gathered  that  his  request  was  granted.  And  just  so  it 
accordingly  came  to  pass,  both  as  to  the  time  and  man- 
ner of  his  martyrdom,  that  very  day  twelve-month, 
whereon  he  had  this  vision,  proving  the  period  of  his 
life. 

14.  How  active  and  diligent  he  was  to  improve  his 
opportunities  to  the  best  advantage,  appears  from  the  se- 
veral letters  he  wrote  during  his  confinement,  especially 
to  the  martyrs  in  prison,  whose  spirit  he  refreshed  by 
proper  consolations,  and  pressed  them  to  persevere  unto 
the  crown.  While  he  was  here  he  had  news  brought  '•him 
of  the  daily  increase  of  the  persecution,  the   emperor 

o  p.  Diac.  in  vit.  Gyp.  p.  14.  p  Loc.  citat 

<j  Ad  Success.  Epiat.  82.  p.  160. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  459 

Valerian  having  sent  a  rescript  to  the  senate,  that  bishops, 
presbyters,  and  deacons,  should  be  put  to  death  without 
delay  ;   that  senators,   and  persons  of  rank  and  quality- 
should  lose  their  honours  and  preferments,  forfeit  their 
estates,  and  if  still  they  continued   Christians,   lose  their 
heads  ;    and  that  matrons  having  had  their  goods  confis- 
cated, should  be   banished  :    that  Xystus  and   Quartus 
had   already    suffered    in    the    cemetery,     \\here    their 
solemn  assemblies  were  held  ;   and  that  the  governors  of 
the  city  carried  on  the  persecution  Vvith  might  and  main, 
spoiling  and  putting  to  death  all  that  they  could  meet 
with.     This  sad  and  uncomfortable  news"^  gave  the  good 
man  just  reason  to  expect  and  provide  for  his  own  fate, 
which  he    waited  ancl   wished   for  every   day.     Indeed 
some  persons  of  the  highest  rank  and  quality,  his  ancient 
friends,  came  to  him,  and  persuaded  him  for  the  present 
to  withdraw,    offering  to  provide  a   secure  place  for  his 
retreat.     But  the  desire  of  that  crown  v.hich  he  had  in 
his  eye,  had  set  him  above  the  w^orld,  and  made  him  deaf 
to  their  kind  offers  and  entreaties.    True  it  is  that  when 
news  was  brought  that  the  officers  were  coming  for  him, 
to  carry  him  to  Utica  to  suffer  there,  by  the  advice  of 
his  friends  he  stept  aside,  being  unwilling  to  suffer   any 
where  but  at  Carthage,  in  the  eye  of  the  people,  where 
he  had  so  long,  and  so  successfully  preached  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  the  truth  \\  hereof  he  was  desirous  to  seal  with 
his  blood  ;   it  being  very  fit  and  congruous,  that  a  bishop 
should  suffer  for  our  Lord  in  that  place  where  he  had 
governed  his  church,  and  by  that  eminent  confession 
edify  and  encourage  the  ffock  committed  to  him,  as  he 
tells'  the  people  of  his  charge  in  the  last  letter  that  ever 
he  wrote.     As  for  themselves,  he  advised  them  to  peace 
and  unity,  not  to  create  trouble  to  one  another,  not  to  of- 
fer themselves  to  the  Gentiles,  but  if  any  was  apprehend- 
ed, to  stand  to  it,  and  freely  confess,  as  God  should  ena- 
ble him  to  declare  himself. 

r  p.  Diac.ubi.  siipr.  p.  15.  s  Epist.  82.  p.  161. 


460  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

15.  Galerius  Maximus  the  new  proconsul,  being  re- 
turned to  Carthage,^  Cyprian  (who  resolved  but  till  then 
to  conceal  himself)  came  home,  and  took  up  his  residence 
in  his  own  gardens.  Where  officers  were  presently  sent 
to  apprehend  him,  who  putting  him  into  a  chariot,  car- 
ried him  to  the  place  where  the  proconsul  was  retired  for 
his  health,  who  commanded  him  to  be  kept  till  the  next 
day,  which  was  done  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  officers 
that  secured  him,  the  people,  alarmed  with  the  news  of 
his  return  and  apprehension,  flocking  to  the  doors,  and 
watching  there  all  night.  The  next  morning  being  Sep- 
tember 14,  Ann.  Chr.  258,  he  was  led  to  the  proconsul's 
palace,  who  not  being  yet  come  forth,  he  was  carried 
aside  into  a  by- place,  where  he  rested  himself  upon  a 
seat,  which  by  chance  was  covered  with  a  linen  cloth, 
that  so  (says  my  author)  even  in  the  hour  of  his  passion^ 
he  might  enjoy  some  part  of  episcopal  honour.  The 
length  and  hurry  of  his  walk,  had  put  the  infirm  and  aged 
man  into  a  violent  sweat,  which  being  observed  by  a  mili- 
tary messenger,  who  had  formerly  been  a  Christian,  he 
came  to  him  and  offered  to  accommodate  him  with  dry 
linen  instead  of  (hat  wet  and  moist  that  was  about  him  : 
this  he  did  in  a  pretended  civility,  but  really  with  de- 
sign to  have  secured  some  monument  of  the  martyr's 
last  agony  and  labour,  who  returned  no  other  answer, 
than,  fFe  seek  to  cure  complaints^  and  sorrows,  "which 
perhaps  to  day  shall  be  no  more  for  ever.  By  this  time 
the  proconsul  was  come  out,  who  looking  upon  him, 
said,  Art  thou  Thascius  Cyprian,  -who  hast  been  bishop 
and  father  to  men  of  an  impious  mind  ?  the  sacred  empe- 
rors command  thee  to  do  sacrifce.  Be  -well  advised,  and 
do  not  throw  away  thy  life.  The  holy  martyr  replied,  1 
am  Cyprian,  I  am  a  Christian,  and  I  cannot  sacrifice  to 
the'  gods  ;  do  as  thou  art  commanded  ;  as  for  me,  in  so  just 
a  cause  there  needs  no  consultation.  The  proconsul  was 
angry  at  his  resolute  constancy,  and  told  him,  that  he  had 
been  a  long  time  of  this  sacrilegious  humour,  had  sedu- 

t  Pont.  ib.  p.  15.  Act.  Paision.ib.  p.  16,  18, 19,  24. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  461 

ced  abundance  into  the  same  wicked  conspiracy  with 
hirnscif,  and  shown  himself  an  enemy  to  the  gods  and 
rehgion  of  the  Roman  empire,  one  whom  the  pious  and 
religious  emperors  could  never  reduce  to  the  observance 
of  their  holy  rites  :  that  therefore  being  found  to  be  the 
author  and  ring-leader  of  so  heinous  a  crime,  he  should 
be  made  an  example  to  those  whom  he  had  seduced  into 
so  great  a  wickedness,  and  that  discipline  and  severity 
should  be  established  in  his  blood.  Whereupon  he  read 
his  sentence  out  of  a  table  book,  /  -will  that  Thasciui 
Cyprian  be  beheaded.  To  which  the  martyr  only  answer- 
ed, I  heartily  thank  Almighty  God,  who  is  pleased  to  set 
me  ft  ee  from  the  chains  of  the  body. 

16.  Sentence  being  passed,  he  was  led  away  from  the 
tribunal  with  a  strong  guard  of  soldiers,  infinite  numbers 
of  people  crowding  after,  the  Christians  weeping  and 
mourning,  and  crjing  out,  let  us  also  be  beheaded  with 
him.  The  place  of  execution  was  Sextus's  field,  a  large 
circuit  of  ground,  where  the  trees  (whereof  the  place  was 
full)  were  loaded  with  persons  to  behold  the  spectacle. 
The  martyr  presently  began  to  strip  himself,  first  put- 
ting off  his  cloak,  which  he  folded  up,  and  laid  at  his 
feet,  and  falling  down  upon  his  knees,  recommended  his 
soul  to  God  in  prayer  ;  after  which  he  put  off  his  dal- 
matic, or  under  coat,  which  he  delivered  to  the  deacons, 
and  so  standing  in  nothing  but  a  linen  vestment,  expect- 
ed the  headsman,  to  whom  he  commanded  the  sum  of 
about  six  pounds  to  be  given,  the  brethren  spreading 
linen  cloths  about  him  to  preserve  his  blood  from  being 
spread  upon  the  ground."  His  shirt  sleeves  being  tied 
by  Julian  (or  as  one  of  the  acts  calls  him,  Tullian)  the 
presbyter,  and  Julian  the  sub-deacon,  he  covered  his 
eyes  with  his  own  hand,  and  the  executioner  did  his  of- 
fice.    His  body  was  by  the  Christians  deposited  not  far 

n  Cum  venisset  Spiculator,  jussit  sviis,  ut  eidem  Spiculatori  XXV.  (alia  Ac- 
ta habent  XX  )  aureos  darent.  Act.  Cypr.  p.  18.  Aureus  sub  imperatoribus 
Romauis  valuit  de  uostro  15  s  sed  sub  Alexandio  Severo  primo  cusi  sunt  Se- 
Tnissis  Aurei  (de  nostro  7  s.  6  d.)  &  Tremissis  Aurei,  qui  valuit  de  nostro  5  8. 
vid.  Brierw.  de  nnm.  cap.  14,  de  ultimo  h'lac  &x  Actis  Cyprjani  locum  inteiU- 
gendumputo. 


462  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

off,  but  at  night  for  fear  of  the  Gentiles,  removed,  and 
with  abundance  of  lights  c,nd  torches  solemnly  interred 
in  the  cemetery  of  Mucrobins   Candidas,  a  procurator, 
near  the  fish-ponds  in  the  Mappalian  way.     This  was 
done  Ann.  258,  Valeriani  and  Gailien    5.     So  extrava- 
gantly wide  is  the  account  of  the  'Alexandrine  Chronicle 
(if  it  means  tlie   same  person)    when  it  tells  us,  that  St. 
Cyprian  suiTered  martyrdom  Ann.   Alexandri  Imp.  13, 
that  is  Ann,  Chr.  234,   tliough  the  consuls  under  which 
he  places  it   (and  this  agrees  better  w'lih  his  other  ac- 
coimts,  both  of  the  Olympiads,  and  of  Christ's  ascension) 
assign  it  to  iheiast  year  of  Maximinus,  Ann.  Chr.  237, 
for  so  he  says,  that  it  w^as  203  years  after  otir  Lord's  as- 
cension into  heaven.     Which  was,  however,  far  enough 
from  truth.      Indeed  elsewhere''  he  places  St.   Cyprian's 
martyrdom  Valerian i   2,    which  (its  appears  by  the  con- 
suls) should  be  5,  that  is,   Ann.  Chr.  258.     But  it  is  no 
new  thing  with  that  atithor  to  confound  tim.es  and  persons, 
and  assign  the  same  events  to  different  years.     Thus  di- 
ed this  good  man,  the  first  bishop  of  his  see  that  suffered 
martyrdom,  as  \Pontius  his  deacon  informs  ns,  who  was 
a  true  lover  of  him,  and  followed  him  to  the  last,   and 
professes  himself  not  to  rejoice  so  much  at  the  glory  and 
triumph  of  his  master,  as  to  mourn  that  he  himself  was 
left  behind. 

17.  St.  Cyprian  though  starting  late,  ran  apace  in 
the  Christian  race.  He  had  a  soul  inflamed  with  a  migh- 
ty love  and  zeal  for  God,  whose  honour  he  studied  by  all 
ways  to  promote.  A  wise  and  prudent  governor,  a 
great  assertor  of  the  church's  rights,  a  resolute  patron 
and  defender  of  the  truth,  a  faithful  and  vigilant  overseer 
of  his  fiock,  powerful  and  diligent  in  preaching,  prudent 
in  his  determinations,  moderate  in  his  counsels,  grave  • 
and  severe  in  his  admonitions,  pathetical  and  afiectionatc 
in  his  persuasives,  indulgent  to  the  penitent,  but  inflexi- 
ble to  the  obstinate  and  contumacious     'Infinile   pains 

V  Ann.  4  Olympiad.  CCLIII.  Indict.  XIII.  p.    626.  w   An.   I-    Oh  nop. 

259.   Ind.  IV.  Valer.  11.         x  Ibid.  p:;g.  16. 

y  Qiijccunque  bona  in  multis  libris  tu'is  ititulisti,  nescins  ipsiiiyi  te  nobis  de- 
sigiiasti  :  es  enim  omnibus  in  tractatu  mnjor,  in  sermone  lucundior,   in  c^nsi- 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN.  463 

he  took  to  reclaim  the  lapsed,  and  to  restore  them  to  the 
chihcli  by  methods  of  penance^  and  due  humiliation: 
he  inviied  them  kindly,  treated  them  tenderly  ;  if  their 
minds  were  honest,  and  their  desires  sincere,  he  would 
not  rigorously  examine  their  crimes  by  over  nice 
weip;his  and  measures  ;  so  prone  to  pity  and  compassion, 
that  he  was  afraid  lest  he  himself  offended  in  re  mining 
other  men's  offences.  He  valued  the  p-ood  of  souls  above 
the  love  of  his  own  life,  constant  in  che  profession  of  re- 
ligion from  which  neither  Dy  hopes  nor  fears  could  he  be 
drawn  aside.  How  strictly  chaste  and  continent  he  w^as, 
e\en  in  his  first  entrance  upon  Christianity,  we  have 
noted  in  the  beginning  of  his  life.  His  humility  emi- 
nently appeared  in  his  declining  the  honour  of  the  epis- 
copal order,  and  desire  that  it  might  be  conferred  upon 
a  more  desei'ving  person  ;  and  when  some  tactions  and 
sclfiimatical  persons  traduced  him  as  ticking  too  rriueh 
upon  him,  because  he  controlled  their  Avild  and  licenti- 
ous courses,  he  vindicates  his  humility  at  large  in  a  letter 
to  Pupianus'',  who  had  made  himself  head  of  the  party 
tliat  appeared  against  him.  So  modest,  that  in  all  great 
transactions  concerning  the  church,  he  always  consulted 
both  his  colleagues  and  his  flock,  himself  assuring  us'', 
that  from  the  very  entrance  upon  his  bishopric  he  deter- 
mined, not  to  adjudge  an}-  thing  by  his  own  private  order, 
without  the  counsel  of  the  clergy,  and  the  consent  of  the 
people.  His  behaviour  was  composed  and  sober",  his 
countenance  grave,  yet  cheerful,  neither  guilty  of  a 
frowning  severity,  nor  an  over  pleasant  mirth,  but  an 
equal  decorum  and  temperament  of  both,  it  being  hard 
to  say  whether  he  more  deserved  to  be  loved  or  feared, 
but  that  he  equally  deserved  both.  And  the  very  same 
he  was  in  his  garb,  sober  and  moderate,  observing  a  just 
distance  both  from  slovenliness  and  superfluity,  such  as 
neither  argued  him  to  be  swelled  w^ith  pride  and  vanity, 

lio  sapientori,  in  patientia  simplicior,  in  (iperibiis  larg-ior,  in  abstientia  sanctior, 
in  obsequio  liumilioi-,  &  in  actu  bono  innocentior.  Nemes.  S;c.  Martyr.  Epist. 
ad  Cvpr.  p.  lo7. 

z  Vid  ad  Cornel.  Epist.  55.  p.  8,5.         a  Epist.  69.  p.  116.         b  Ad.  Presb.  & 
Diac.  Epist.  5.  p.  14.        c  P.  Diac.  in  vit.  Cypr.  p.  12. 


464  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

nor  infected  with  a  sordid  and  penurious  mind.  But 
that  which  set  the  crown  upon  the  head  of  all  his  other 
virtues,  was  his  admirable  and  exemplary  charity.  He 
was  of  a  kind  and  compassionate  temper  and  he  gave  it 
vent.  Upon  his  first  embracing  the  Christian  religion 
he  sold  his  estate  (which  was  not  mean  and  inconsidera- 
ble) and  gave  almost  all  of  it  to  the  poor,  from  which  he 
suffered  no  considerations  to  restrain  him.  His  hand, 
and  tongue,  and  heart,  were  open  upon  all  occasions ; 
we  find  him  at  one  time  not  only  earnestly  ^pressing 
others  to  contribute  towards  the  redemption  of  Christi- 
ans taken  captive  by  the  Barbarians,  but  himself  sending 
a  collection  of  a  great  many  thousand  crowns.  Nor  was 
this  a  single  act  done  once  in  his  life,  but  his  ordinary 
practice ;  his  doors"  were  open  to  all  that  came,  the 
widow  never  returned  empty  from  him ;  to  any  that 
were  blind,  he  would  be  their  guide  to  direct  them ; 
those  that  were  lame,  he  was  ready  to  lend  his  assistance 
to  support  them ;  if  any  were  oppressed  by  might,  he 
was  at  hand  to  rescue  and  protect  them.  Which  things, 
he  was  wont  to  say,  they  ought  to  do,  who  desired  to 
render  themselves  truly  acceptable  and  dear  to  God. 

18.  His  natural  parts  seem  to  have  been  ready  and 
acute  enough,  which  how  far  he  improved  by  secular 
and  Gentile  learning,  is  unknown.  He  seems  to  have 
laid  no  deep  foundations  in  the  study  of  philosophy, 
whereof  few  or  no  footsteps  are  to  be  seen  in  any  of  his 
writings  :  his  main  excellency  was  eloquence,  rhetoric 
being  his  proper  profession  before  his  conversion  to 
Christianity  ;  wherein  he  attained  to  so  great  a  pitch,  that 
Erasmus,  a  competent  judge  of  these  matters,  sticks 
not  to  affirm*^,  that  among  all  the  ecclesiastics  he  is  the 
only  African  writer,  that  attained  the  native  purity  of  the 
Latin  tongue.  '^I'ertuilian  is  difficult  and  obscure,  St. 
Augustin  strangely  perplexed  and  dry ;  but  Cyprian  (as 
St.  Hierom^  long  since  truly  censured)  like  a  pure  foun- 
tain is  smooth  and  sweet.     And  Lactantius''  long  before 

d  Ad  Episc.  Numid.  Epist.  60.  p.  97.  e  Pont,  ubi  supr.  f  Praef.   in 

Cypr.  inter  Erasm.  Ep.  i   28.  Epist.  6.  col.  1616.         g  Epist.  a«i  Paulin.  p.  lO'l. 
Tom.  I.         h  Dt  Jutilit.  1.  5.  c.  1.  p.  459. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN*  465 

him  passed  this  judgment,  that  Cyprian  alone  was  the 
chief  and  famous  writer,  eminent  for  his  teaching  ora- 
tory, and  writing  books  admirable  in  their  kind  :  that 
he  had  a  facile,  copious,  pleasant,  and  (which  is  the 
greatest  grace  of  speech)  clear  and  perspicuous  wit,  that 
a  man  can  hardly  discern  whether  he  be  more  eloquent 
in  his  expressions,  easy  in  his  explications,  or  potent  in 
his  persuasives'.  Indeed  his  style  is  very  natural  and 
easy,  nothing  elaborate  or  affected  in  it,  or  which  savours 
of  craft  and  ostentation,  but  such  every  where  the  tenor 
of  his  language  (I  speak  ""Erasmus's  sense  as  well  as 
my  own)  that  you  will  think  you  hear  a  truly  Christian 
bishop,  and  one  designed  for  martyrdom  speaking  to 
you.  His  mind  was  inflamed  with  piety,  and  his  speech 
was  answerable  to  his  mind  :  he  spake  elegantly,  and  yet 
things  more  powerful  than  elegant,  nor  did  he  speak 
powerful  things  so  much  as  live  them.  After  his  com- 
ing over  to  the  church,  he  made  such  quick  and  vast 
proficiencies  in  Christian  theology,  that  'Baronius  thinks 
it  not  improbable  to  suppose  either  that  before  his  con- 
version he  had  been  conversant  in  the  books  of  Chris- 
tians, or  that  he  was  miraculously  instructed  from  above. 
It  is  certain  that  afterwards  he  kept  close  to  Tertullian's 
writings,  without  which  he  scarce  ever  passed  one  day, 
often  saying  to  his  notary.  Reach  hither  my  master^ 
meaning  Tertullian.  A  passage  which  St.  Hierom™ 
tells  us  he  received  from  Paulus  of  Concordia  in  Italy, 
who  had  it  from  the  mouth  of  Cyprian's  own  amanuen- 
sis at  Rome.     And  certainly  it  sounds  not  a  little  to  the 

i  Incubatln  Lybia  sanguis,  sed  ubiqiie  lingua  pollet  : 

Sola  superstes  ag'it  de  corpore,  sola  obire  nescit. 

Dum  j^enus  esse  hominun!  Ciiristus  siiiet  &;  vigere  mundun),- 

DumUber  ullus  erit,  dum  scrinia  sacra  literarum, 

Te  leget  omnis  amans  Chi'istum,  tua,  Cypriane,  disctt. 

Spiriiusille  Dei,  qui  ttuxer^it  autor  in  Prophetas, 

Fontibus  eloquii  le  cffilitus  actus  irrigavit. 

O  ni%'e  canrjidius  llngux  genus  !  O  novum  saporem  ! 

Ut  liquor  ambroslus,  cormitigat,  inibuit  jjalatum, 

Sedcm  animw  penetrat,  inentem  tovet,  &  pererrat  artus  : 

Sic  Deus  inteiius  sentitur,  Si  inditur  med  lilis. 
Prudent.  IV.^i  XTSjfav,   Hymn,  XII.  in  Passion.  Cypr.  Martyris,   et   ETjmSc 
Carthag. 

k  Loc.  citat.        1  Ad.  ann,  250,  n.  XI.        m  De  script,  in  Tertull. 

3    N 


466  THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 

commendation  of  his  judgment,  that  he  could  drink  so 
freely  at  the  fountain,  and  suck  in  none  of  his  odd  and 
uncouth  opinions,  that  he  could  pick  the  flowers,  and 
pass  by  the  useless  or  noxious  weeds;  as  a  wise  man 
many  times  is  so  for  from  being  corrupted,  that  he  is  the 
more  warned  and  confirmed  in  the  right  by  another 
man's  errors  and  mistakes.  As  for  his  writings,  St. 
Hierom  "  passes  them  over  with  this  character,  that  it  was 
superfluous  to  reckon  them  up,  being  clearer  and  more 
obvious  than  the  sun.  Many  of  them  are  undoubtedly 
lost,  the  greatest  part  of  what  remain,  are  epistles,  and 
all  of  them  such  as  admirably  tend  to  promote  the  peace 
and  order  of  the  church,  and  advance  piety  and  a  good 
life.  A  gi-eat  number  of  tracts,  either  dubious  or  evi- 
dently supposititious,  are  laid  at  his  door,  some  of  them 
very  ancient,  and  most  of  them  useful,  it  being  his  happi- 
ness above  all  other  writers  of  the  church  (says  °  Eras- 
mus) that  nothing  is  fathered  upon  him  but  what  is 
learned,  and  what  was  the  issue  of  some  considerable 
pen. 

19.  He  was  highly  honoured  while  he  lived,  not  only 
by  men,  consulted  and  appealed  to  in  all  weighty  cases 
by  foreign  churches,  but  by  frequent  visions  and  divine 
condescensions,  (as  he  was  wont  to  call  them)  whereby 
he  was  immediately  warned  and  directed  in  all  important 
aflairs  and  exigencies  of  the  church.     After  his  death 
his  memory  was  had  in  great  veneration,  the  people  of 
Carthage  ^  erecting  two  eminent  churches  to  it,  one  iu 
the  place  of  his  martyrdom,  the  other  in  the  Mappalian 
way,    where  he  was  buried.     The   former   was   styled 
Mensa  Cypriani^  Cyprian's  Table,  because  there  he  had 
been  oftered  up  a  sacrifice  acceptable  unto  God.     And 
here  they  had  their  anniversary  commemorations  of  him. 
Whether  this  was  the  church  mentioned  by  ^  Procopius, 
I  cannot  tell,   who  informs  us,    that  the   Carthaginians, 
above   all  people  in  the  world,   honoured  St.    Cyprian, 
building  a  magnificent  church  to  his  memory  without 

Ti  Ibid,  in  Cypr.  o  Ubi  siipr.  p  Vict,  de  Persec.  Vand;il.  1.1.  inter 

Oothod.  PP.  p.  tJOl.Tom.  2.  qDe  Bell.  Vandall.  1.  1.  vid.  Niceph.  1.17.C. 

i:.  p.  751. 


THE  LIFE  OF   ST.  CYPRIAN. 


467 


the  city  walls,  near  the  sea  side,  and  besides  other  ex- 
pressions of  honour  done  to  him,  they  kept  a  yearly  fes- 
tival, which  they  called  Cypriana.  This  church  Honori- 
cus,  king-  of  the  Vandals,  afterwards  took  from  the  Ca- 
thplics,  casting  out  the  orthodox  clergy  with  disgrace 
and  contempt,  and  bestowed  it  upon  the  Arians,  which, 
ninety-five  years  after,  was  recovered  by  the  emperor 
Justinian,  under  the  conduct  of  Belisarius,  who  besiged 
and  took  Carthage,  and  drove  the  Vandals  out  of  all 
those  parts. 


HIS  WRITINGS 


Genuine. 
Epistola  ad  Donatum  statim  a 

Baptismo  conscripta. 
Epistolae  in  Secessu  toto  bien- 

nio  conscriptae  XXXVIII. 
Epistolae  sub  Pontificatu  Cor- 

nelii  et  Lucii  XVIII. 
Epistolae  Miscellaneae  in  pace 

variis    temporibus  conscrip- 
ts VIII. 
Epistolae  sub  Pontificatu  Ste- 

phani,   et  de  rebaptizandis 

Haereticis  X. 
Epistolae  in  exilio  scriptae  sub 

finem  Vitae  VII. 
De  disciplina  et  habitu  Vii"gi- 

num. 
De  Lapsis. 
De   Unitate  Ecclesiae  Catho- 

licae. 
De  Oratione  Dominica. 
Ad  Demetrianum. 
De  Idolorum  Vanitate. 
De  Alortalitate. 
De  Opere  et  Eleemosynis. 
De  Bono  Patientiae. 
De  Zelo  et  Livore. 
De  exhortatione  Martyrii   ad 

Fortunatum. 
Testimoniorum  Adversus  Ju- 


daeos  Lib.  III. 
Concilium   Carthaginense, 
baptizandis  Haereticis. 


de 


Supposititious. 

De  Spectaculis. 

De  Disciplina  etbono  pudici- 

tiae. 
De  Laude  Martyrii   ad   Mo- 
sen,  &c. 
Ad  Novatianum,  quod  Lapsis 

spes  veniae    non    sit  dene- 

ganda. 
De  Cardinalibus    Christi  ope- 

ribus. 
De  Nativitate  Christi. 
De  ratione  Circumcisionis. 
De  Stella  et   Magis,   ac  inno- 

centium   nece. 
De  baptismo  Christi,  et  mani- 

festatione  Trinitatis. 
De    jejunio    et    tentationibus 

Christi. 
De  Coena  Domini. 
De  Ablutione  pedum. 
De   Unctione    Chrismatis,    et 

aliis  Sacramentis. 
De  Passione  Christi. 
De  Resurrectione  Christi. 


468 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  CYPRIAN. 


De  Ascensione  Christi. 

De  Spiritu  Sancto. 

De  Aleatoribus. 

De    montibus   Sina    et    Sion 

contr.  Judaeos, 
Carmen,  Genesis, 
Carmen,  Sodoma. 
Carmen,  ad  Senatorem  Apos» 

tatam. 
Hymnus  de  Pascha  Domini, 
Oratio  pro  Martyribus. 
Oratio  in  die  Passionis  suae. 


De  singular! tate  Clericorum. 

In  Symbolum  Apostolorum 
Expositio. 

De  Judaica  incredulitate. 

Adv.  Judaeos,  qui  Christum 
insecuti  sunt. 

De  revelatione  Capitis  B.  Jo- 
an. Baptistae. 

De  duplici  Martyrio,  ad  For- 
tunatum 

De  XII.  Abusionibus  Saeculi. 

Dispo^tio  Ccenae. 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.    GREGORY, 

BISHOP  OF  NEOCiESAREA. 


W^ 


St.  Gregory  where  born.    His  kindred  and  relations.  The  rank  and  qua- 
lity of  his  parents.     His  youthful  studies.     His  study  of  the  laws.     His 
travels  to  Alexandria.     The   calumny  there  fixed  upon  him,  and  his 
miracidous  vindication.    His  return  through  Greece.  His  studying  the 
law  at  Berytus,  and  upon  what  occasion.  His  fixing  at  Caesarea,   and 
putting  him  self  under  the  tutorage  of  Origen.  The  course  of  his  studies. 
His  Panegyric  to  Origen  at  his   departure.     Origen's  letter  to  him, 
and  the  importance  of  it.  His  refusal  to  stay  at  Neocaesarea,  and  re- 
tirement into  the  wilderness.    His  shvmnjng  to  be  made  bishop  of  Neo- 
caesarea. Consecrated  bishop  of  that  city  during  his  absence.  His  ac- 
ceptance of  the  charge,   and  the  state  of  that  place   at  his  entrance 
upon  it.     His  miraculous  instruction  in  the  great  mysteries  of  Christi- 
anity. His  creed.  The  miracles  wrought  by  him  in  his  return.  His  ex- 
expelling  demons  out  of  a  gentile  temple,  and  the  success  of  it.     His 
welcome  entrance  into  the  city,  and  kind  entertaiiiment.     His  diligent 
preaching  to  the  people.     His  erecting  a  church  for  divine   worship, 
and  its  signal  preservation.  An  horrible  plague  stopped  by  his  praj^ers. 
The  great  influence  of  it  upon  the  minds  of  the  people.  His  judging  in  civil 
causes.  His  drying  up  a  lake  by  his  prayers,  which  had  been  the  cause 
of  an  implacable  quarrel  between  two  brothers  ;   and  his  restraining 
the  overflowings  of  the  river  Lycus.     The  signal  vengeance   inflicted 
upon  two  Jews,  counterfeit  beggars.     The  fame  and  multitude  of  his 
miracles,  and  the  authorities  to  justify  the  credibility  of  them.  The  rage 
and  cnielty  of  the  Decian  persecution  in  the  regions  of  Pontus  and 
Cappadocia.     His  persuading  the  Christians  to  withdraw.     His  own 
retirement.     The  narrow  search   made  for  him,  and  his  miraculous 
escape.     His  betrayer  converted.    His  return  to  Neocaesarea,  and  in- 
stituting solemnities  to  the  memories  of  the  martyrs,  and  the  reasons 
of  it.     The  inundations  of  the  northern  nations  upon  the   Roman  em- 
pire.    His  canonical  epistle  to  rectify  the  disorders  committed  by  oc- 
casion of  those  ini'oads.     His  meeting  with  others  in  the  synod  at  An- 
tioch,  about  the  cause  of  PaulusSamosatenus.  His  i-eturn  home,  age,  and 
death.  His  solemn  thanks  to  God  for  the  flourishing  state  of  his  church, 
and  command  concerning  his  burial .    The  excellent  character  given 
of  him  by  St.  Basil.  His  writings.    The  charge  of  Sabellianism.  St!  Ba- 
sil's apology  for  him  in  that  behalf.     Modesty  to  be  used  in  censuring 
the  ancient  fathers,  and  why. 


470  LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

1.  ST.  GREGORY,  called  originally  Theodorus, 
was  born  at  *  Neocaesarea,  the  metropolis  of  Cappado- 
cia,  situate  upon  the  ri^'^er  Lycus.  His  parents  were 
gentiles,  but  eminent  for  their  birth  and  fortunes.  He 
had  a  brother  called  Athenodorus,  his  fellow-pupil,  and 
afterwards  colleague  in  the  episcopal  order  in  his  own 
country,  and  one  sister  at  least,  married  to  a  judge  under 
the  governor  of  Palestine.  His  father  ^  was  a  zealot  for 
his  religion,  wherein  he  took  care  to  educate  him,  toge- 
ther with  the  learning  of  the  gentile  world.  When  he 
was  fourteen  years  of  age  his  father  died,  after  which  he 
took  a  greater  liberty  of  inquiring  into  things,  and  as  his 
reason  grew  more  quick  and  manly,  and  was  advan- 
taged by  the  improvements  of  education,  he  saw  more 
plainly  the  folly  and  vanity  of  that  religion,  wherein  he 
had  been  brought  up,  which  presently  abated  his  edge, 
and  turned  his  inclinations  towards  Christianity.  But 
though  he  had  lost  his  father,  his  mother  "  took  care  to 
complete  his  breeding,  placing  him  and  his  brother  un- 
der masters  of  rhetoric  and  eloquence.  By  one  of  which, 
who  was  appointed  to  teach  him  the  Latin  tongue,  as  a 
necessary  piece  of  noble  and  ingenious  education,  he 
was  persuaded  to  the  study  of  the  Roman  laws,  as  what 
would  be  a  mighty  advantage  to  him  in  what  way  soever 
he  should  make  use  of  his  rhetorical  studies  afterwards. 
And  the  man  himself  being  no  inconsiderable  lawyer, 
read  lectures  to  him  with  great  accuracy  and  diligence, 
which  he  as  sedulously  attended  to,  rather  to  gratify  his 
humour  and  his  fancy,  than  out  of  any  love  to  those  stu- 
dieSj  or  design  to  arrive  at  perfection  in  them.  Which 
however  sufficiently  commends  his  industry,  those  laws 
(as  himself  observes '')  being  vast  and  various,  and  not 
to  be  learned  without  trouble  and  difficulty.  And  which 
above  all  increased  the  labour,  was,  that  they  were  all 
written  in  Latin,  a  language  (as  he  confesses)  great  in- 
deed and  admirable,  and  suited  to  the  majesty  of  the 
empire ;  but  which  he  found  troublesome  enough  to 
make  himself  but  a  competent  master  of. 

a  Greg-.  Nvss.  in  vit.  Gr.  Thaiam.  p.  969. Tom.  2.      b  Gr.  TJiaum.  Panegvr. 
ad  Orig.  p.  iS2.         clbid.p.  1S4.        dlbid.  p.  171. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.   471 

2.  Having  laid  the  foundations  of  his  first  and  most 
necessary  studies  at  home,  he  designed  yet  further  to 
accomplish  himself  by  foreign  travels,  going  probably 
first  for  Alexandria,  grown  more  than  ordinarily  famous 
the  Platonic  school  lately  erected  there.  Indeed  I  am 
not  confident  of  the  precise  assigning  this  period  of  his 
life,  but  know  that  I  cannot  be  much  wide  the  mark, 
Gregory  of  Nissa*"  assuring  us,  that  he  came  thither  in  his 
youth,  where  by  the  closeness  of  his  studies,  but  espe- 
cially by  the  admirable  sobriety  and  strictness  of  his  life, 
he  visibly  reproached  the  debaucheries  of  his  fellow  stu- 
dents, who  were  of  more  wanton  and  dissolute  manners. 
They  presently  fall  a  meditating  revenge,  confederating 
with  a  common  strumpet  to  put  an  abuse  and  affront  up- 
on him.  Accordingly  dressed  in  a  loose  wanton  garb, 
she  came  to  him  one  day  as  he  was  engaged  in  a  serious 
and  grave  discourse  with  some  learned  and  peculiar 
friends,  impudently  charging  him  with  over  familiar  con- 
verses, relating  what  she  thought  good  to  affirm  had  ei- 
ther been  said,  or  had  passed  between  them  ;  charging 
him  moreover  with  cheating  her  of  the  reward  of  their 
lewd  embraces.  The  company,  who  knew  him  to  be  a 
person  of  quite  another  temper,  stormed  at  the  boldness 
and  impudence  of  the  w^oman,  while  he,  regardless  of  the 
affront,  said  nothing  to  it,  calmly  desiring  a  friend  to  give 
her  the  money  that  she  asked,  that  they  might  be  no 
longer  interrupted  in  their  discourses.  But  behold  how 
ready  Heaven  is  to  vindicate  the  cause  of  injured  inno- 
cence. The  money  was  no  sooner  paid  into  her  hand, 
but  as  if  acted  by  a  furious  daemon,  she  fell  into  fits  of 
the  most  wild  and  extravagant  madness,  roaring  out  the 
most  horrid  noise,  throwing  herself  upon  the  ground, 
pulling  and  tearing  of  her  hair,  distorting  her  eyes,  and 
foaming  at  the  mouth,  nor  could  she  be  freed  from  the 
rude  treatments  of  the  merciless  dcemon,  till  he  whom 
she  had  wronged  had  forgiven  her,  and  interceded  with 
Heaven  for  her. 

e   Uhi  sufir.  p.  972. 


472    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

3.  Departing  from  Alexandria,  he  came  back,  as  we 
may  probably  suppose,  through  Greece,  and  staid  awhile 
at  Athens,  where  ^  Socrates  tells  us  he  studied,  and 
thence  returned  to  his  own  country,  applying  himself  to 
his  old  study  of  the  law,  which  he  had  now  a  great  op- 
portunity to  improve,  by  going  to  Berytus,  a  city  of 
Phoenicia,  and  a  famous  university  for  the  profession  of 
the  Roman  laws,  whence  Eunapius^  says  of  Anatolius, 
it  was  no  wonder  if  he  was  incomparably  skilled  in  the 
laws,  being  born  at  Berytus,  the  mother  of  those  studies. 
Hither  he  came  upon  this  occasion.**  The  president  of 
Palestine  had  taken  his  brother-in-law,  an  eminent  law- 
yer, along  with  him  to  be  his  assessor  and  assistant  in 
governing  the  affairs  of  that  province,  who  not  long  after 
sent  for  his  wife,  and  a  request  that  he  also  would  come 
along  with  her.  All  things  conspired  to  make  him  wil- 
ling to  undertake  this  journey,  the  gratifying  his  sister 
with  his  company,  the  importunity  and  persuasion  of  his 
friends,  the  conveniency  of  residing  at  Berytus,  for  the 
study  of  the  law,  and  the  advantage  of  conveyance,  and 
the  public  carriages  that  were  sent  to  fetch  his  sister  and 
her  retinue  into  those  parts.  Whether  he  actually  stu- 
died at  Berytus  cannot  be  gathered  from  any  account 
that  he  himself  gives  of  it,  nay  rather  the  contrary,'  though 
St.  Hieron  and  others  expressly  affirm  it.  If  he  did,  he 
staid  not  long,  quickly  growing  weary  of  his  law  studies, 
being  tempted  with  the  more  pleasant  and  charming  spe- 
culations of  philosophy.  The  fame  of  Origen,  who  at 
that  time  had  opened  a  school  at  Ccesarea  in  Palestine, 
and  whose  renown  no  doubt  he  had  heard  sufficiently 
celebrated  at  Alexandria,  soon  reached  him,  to  whom 
he  immediately  betook  himself,  where  meeting  ^acciden- 
tally with  Firmilian,  a  Cappadocian  gentleman,  and  af- 
terwards bishop  of  Cccsarea  in  that  country,  and  finding 
a  more  than  ordinary  sympathy  and  agreeableness  in 
their  tempers  and  studies,  they  entered  into  a   league  of 

f  H.  Eccl.  1.  4.  c.  27-  p.  244.  g  In  vit.  Proaeres.  p.  117. 

h  Fanegyr.  ad  Orig.  p.  1^6.  i  Id.  ibid-  p.  188. 

k  Cr.  Nyss.  ib.  p.  07i. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.    473 

friendship,  and  jointly  put  themselves,  together  with  his 
brother  Athenonorus,  under  the  tutorage  of  that  so  much 
celebrated  master.  Where  'Erasmus's  mistake  must  be 
pardoned,  making  our  Gregory  and  Theodorus  two  dis- 
tinct scholars  of  Origen,  when  it  is  so  notoriously  known 
they  were  but  two  names  of  the  same  person.  Though 
herein  the  more  easily  to  be  excused,  thaf^Nicephorus 
Callistus  long  before  him,  had  besides  ours,  made  ano- 
ther Theodorus  scholar  also  to  Origen  at  that  same  time 
at  Csesarea,  who  was,  as  he  tells  us,  an  eminent  bishop 
in  Palestine.  But  herein  there  is  an  universal  silence  in 
all  other  writers,  not  the  least  intimation  of  it  in  Eusebi- 
us,  from  whom  he  derives  his  accounts  of  things.  So 
plain  it  is,  that  of  two  several  names,  he  made  two  differ- 
ent persons. 

4.  Glad  he  was  to  have  fallen  under  so  happy  an  insti- 
tution, Origen  by  the  most  apt  and  easy  methods  leading 
him  through  the  whole  region  and  circumference  of  phi- 
losophy.    By  how  many  stages  he  brought  him  through 
the  several  parts  of  discipline,  logic,  physics,  mathemat- 
ics, ethics,  metaphysics,  and  how  he  introduced  him  into 
the  mysteries  of  theology,  St.  Gregory  himself  has  given 
us"  large  and  particular  accounts,  which  it  is  not  mate- 
rial here  to  insist  upon.     Above  all  he  endeavoured  to 
settle  him  in  the  full  belief  and  persuasion  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  whereinto  he  had  some  insight  before,  and 
to  ground  him  in  the  knowledge  of  the  holy  scriptures, 
as  the  best  system  of  true  wisdom  and  philosophy.   Five 
years  he  continued  Origen's  disciple,  when  he  was  rcr 
called  into  his  own  country.     Being  to  take  his  leave, 
he  made  an  oration  before  his  master,  and  in  a  numerous 
auditory,  wherein  as  he  gives  Origen  his  just  commen- 
dations, so  he  particularly  blesses  God°  for   the  happy 
advantages  of  his  instructions,  and  returns  thanks  to  his 
tutelar  and  guardian  angel,  which  as  it  had  superintended 
him  from  his  birth,  so  had  especially  conducted  him  to 
SQ  good  a  master  ;  elegantly  bewailing^  his  departure 

1  Vit  Oris;-.  Prxf.  Oiig.  Oper.  m  H.  Eccl.  1.  5.  c.  20.  p.  369. 

I-.  Panftr.  \>.  197,  5cc.  o  Ibid.  p.  17^,  181.  p  Ibid.  p.  218,  Sic. 

3    0 


474:    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  TH AUMATURGUS. 

from  that  school,  as  a  kind  of  banishment  out  of  Paradise, 
a  being  turned  like  the  prodigal  out  of  his  father's  house, 
and  a  being  carried  captive  as  the  Jews  were  into  Baby- 
lon :  concluding,  that  of  all  things  upon  earth,  nothing 
could  give  so  great  an  ease  and  consolation  to  his  mind, 
as  if  his  kind  and  benign  angel  would  bring  him  back  to 
that  place  again. 

5.  He  was  no  sooner  returned  to  Neocaesarea,  but  Ori- 
gen  followed  him  with  a  letter,  "^  commending  his  excel- 
lent parts,  able  to  render  him  an  eminent  lawyer  among 
the  Romans,  or  a  great  philosoj^her  among  the  Greeks, 
but  especially  persuading  him  to  improve  them  to  the 
ends  of  Christianity,  and  the  practice  of  piety  and  virtue. 
For  which  purpose  he  lets  him  know  that  he  instructed 
him  mainly  in  those  sciences  and  parts  of  philosophy, 
which  might  be  introductory  to  the  Christian  religion, 
acquainting  him  with  those  things  in  geometry  and  as- 
tronomy, which  might  be  useful  for  the  understanding 
and  explaining  the  holy  scriptures,  these  things  being 
as  previously  advantageous  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  doctrine,  as  geometry,  music,  grammar,  rhe- 
toric, and  astronomy,  are  preparatory  to  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy. Advising  him  before  all  things  to  read  the 
scripture,  and  that  with  the  most  profound  and  diligent 
attention,  and  not  rashly  to  entertain  notions  of  divine 
things,  or  to  speak  of  them  without  solemn  premedita- 
tion ;  and  not  only  to  seek  but  knock  to  pray  with  faith 
and  fervency,  it  being  in  vain  to  think  that  the  door 
should  be  opened  where  prayer  is  not  sent  beforehand  to 
unlock  it.  At  his  return''  all  men's  eyes  were  upon  him, 
expecting  that  in  public  meetings  he  should  show  him- 
self, and  let  them  reap  some  fruit  of  all  his  studies;  and 
to  this  he  was  universally  courted  and  importuned,  and 
especially  by  the  wise  and  great  men  of  che  city,  entreat- 
ing him  to  reside  among  them,  and  by  his  excellent  pre- 
cepts and  rules  of  life  to  reform  and  direct  the  manners 
of  men.  But  the  modest  young  man,  knowing  how  ub- 
fit  thty  generally  w  ere  to  entertain   the  dictates  of  true 

q  Extat  in  Oiig.  PhilOcal.  c.  13.  p.  41.         r  Gr.  Nyss.  ib.  p.  97S 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.  475 

philosophy,  and  fearing  lest  by  a  great  concourse  and 
applause  he  might  be  insensibh^  ensnared  hito  pride  and 
vain  glory,  resisted  all  addresses,  and  withdrew  himself 
into  the  wilderness,  where  he  resigned  up  himself  to 
solitude  and  contemplation,  conversing  with  God  and 
his  own  mind,  and  delighting  his  thoughts  with  the  plea- 
sant speculations  of  nature,  and  the  curious  and  admira- 
ble works  of  the  great  Artificer  of  the  world. 

6.  Neocaesarea  was  a  place  large  and  populous,  but 
miserably  overgrown  with  superstition  and  idolatry,  so 
that  it  seemed  the  place  where  Satcni''s  seatwdiS,  and  whi- 
ther Christianity  had  as  yet  scarce  made  its  entrance,  to 
the  great  grief  and  resentment  of  all  good  men,  who 
heartily  wished  that  religion  and  the  fear  of  God  were 
planted  in  that  place.  'Phaedimus,  bishop  of  Amasea, 
a  neighbour  city  in  that  province,  a  man  endued  with  a 
prophetic  spirit,  had  cast  his  eye  upon  our  young  philo- 
sopher, as  one  whose  ripe  parts  and  piety  did  more  than 
weigh  dowii  his  want  of  age,  and  rendered  him  a  person  fit  to 
be  a  guide  of  souls  to  the  place  of  his  nativity,  whose  re- 
lation to  the  place  would  more  endear  the  employment  to 
him.  The  notice  hereof  being  intimated  to  him,  he 
shifted  his  quarters,  and  as  oft  as  sought  for,  fled  from 
one  desert  and  solitary  shelter  to  another,  so  that  the 
good  man  by  all  his  arts  and  industry  could  not  lay  hold 
of  him,  the  one  not  being  more  earnest  to  find  him  out, 
than  the  other  was  vigilant  to  decline  him.  Phaedimus 
at  last  despairing  to  meet  with  him,  resolved  however  to 
go  on  with  his  design,  and  being  acted,  op/^«  rtn^wnpdi,  by 
a  divine  and  immediate  impetus^  betook  himself  to  this 
pious  stratagem  (the  like  precedent  probably  not  to  be 
met  with  in  the  antiquities  of  the  church)  not  regarding 
Gregorius's  absence  (who  was  at  that  time  no  less  than 
three  days'  journey  distant  from  him)  he  made  his  ad- 
dress and  prayer  to  God,  and  having  declared  that  both 
himself  and  Gregory  were  at  that  moment  equally  seen 
by  God,  as  if  they  were  present,  instead  of  imposition  of 
hands,  he  directed  a  discourse  to  St.  Gregory,  whereirx 

s  1(1.  ib.  p.  97fi. 


476    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

he  set  him  apart  to  God,  and  constituted  him  bishop  of 
that  place,  and  God,  who  steers  the  hearts  of  men,  in- 
clined him,  how  averse  soever  before,  to  accept  the 
charge,  when,  probably,  he  had  a  more  formal  and  so- 
lemn consecration. 

7.  The  province  he  entered  upon  was  difficult,  the 
city  and  parts  thereabouts  being  wholly  given  to  the  wor- 
ship of  demons,  *and  enslaved  to  the  observance  of  dia- 
bolic rites,  there  not  being  above  seventeen  Christians  in 
tlwse  parts,  so  that  he  must  found  a  church  before  he 
could  govern  it;  and,  which  was  not  the  least  inconve- 
nience, heresies  had  spread  themselves  over  those  coun- 
tries, and  he  himself,  though  accomplished  with  a  suffi- 
cient furniture  of  human  learning,  yet  altogether  unex- 
ercised in  theological  studies,  and  the  mysteries  of  reli- 
gion. For  remedy  whereof  he  is  said  to  have  had  an  im- 
mediate assistance  from  heaven.  For  while  one  night  he 
was  deeply  considering  of  these  things,  and  discussing 
matters  of  faith  in  his  own  mind,  he  had  a  vision, 
wherein  two  august  and  venerable  persons  (whom  he 
understood  to  be  St.  John  the  Evangelist  and  the  blessed 
virgin)  appeared  in  the  chamber  where  he  was,  and  dis- 
coursed before  him  concerning  those  points  of  faith, 
which  he  had  been  before  debating  with  himself.  After 
whose  departure  he  immediately  penned  that  canon  and 
rule  of  faith  which  tliey  had  declared,  and  which  he  ever 
after  made  the  standard  of  his  doctrine,  and  bequeathed 
as  an  inestimable  legacy  and  depositum  to  his  successors, 
the  tenor  whereof  we  shall  here  insert,  together  with  the 
original  Greek;  which  being  very  difficult  to  be  exactly 
rendered  into  our  language,  the  learned  reader  (if  he  likes 
not  mine)  may  translate  for  himself. 

I'iKU^f    'Ttht'tH    ■yuytlTUg.'    :T«T>ig  !//»  (UOVOJmSc.        Eif  Xt/gi®',    fJLOy®'     OK,  /UOVK,    06OC     Mt 

nii,  X,  Suvttf^K  '■/b^wf  it]ia-iui;  rrotin]iK)i,  viii  dxx^riyoi  at\))S-/v£  ffa^^cc  •  etigct]®'  da^dtH,  5 
asfiSa//®'  d^^dgns,  *,  d^-xtnl®'  ddctvdr)!,  5  dUt®"  diS'tx.  Kai  'ev  7rnv1j1.it  dym,  c-K 
©SB  T>i»  ilsr^f^iy  I^oy  x.  it  iitx  Tfi^mi;  S')iX:tJii  ToTf  dt^^atiroi;  '   ilxiey  lii  J/k,  rexei"  riKii* 

t  Id.  ubi  supr.  p.  977- 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.    4r7 

^ai;i,   ^atlott  xpia.'  my-i  iyia.,  a.-ytirtif,  dyidLffy^i  X'-Ph^^'  **  ?  (favsjBTau  ©W{  o  tt*- 
T;ig,   0  iwi  5ri»T(»v,  5  if  Trirf   Kd}  ©«c  0  iJkc,   c  Six  TrivruM'    Tg<*c  Tf/.iix,  fi^H  5  otl- 

There  is  one  God,  the  Father  of  the  living  Word,  and  of 
the  subsisting  Wisdom  and  Power,  and  of  Him  who  is  his 
eternal  image,  the  perfect  Begetter  of  Him  that  is  per- 
Ject,  the  Father  of  the  only  begotten  Son.  There  is  one 
Lord,  the  only  \_Son'\  of  the  only  \_Father'^  God  of  God, 
the  character  and  image  of  the  Godhead,  the  powerful 
Word,  the  comprehensive  Wisdom,  by  which  all  things 
-were  made,  and  the  Power  that  gave  being  to  the  whole 
creation,  the  true  Son  of  the  true  Father,  the  Invisible  of 
the  Invisible,  the  Incorruptible  of  the  Incorruptible,  the 
Immortal  of  the  Immortal,  and  the  eternal  of  him  that  is 
eternal.  There  is  one  Holy  Ghost,  having  its  subsistence 
of  God,  which  appeared  through  the  Son  to  mankind,  the 
perfect  Image  of  the  perfect  Son,  the  life  giving  life,  the 
holy  fountain,  the  sanctity,  and  the  author  of  sanctif  ca- 
tion :  by  whom  God  the  father  is  made  manifest,  who  is 
over  all,  and  in  all ;  and  God  the  Son,  who  is  through  alL 
A  perfect  Trinity,  which  neither  in  glory,  eternity,  or 
dominion  is  divided,  or  separated  from  itself 

To  this  creed  he  always  kept  himself,  the  original  where- 
of written  with  his  own  hand,  my  author  assures  us  was 
preserved  in  that  church  in  his  time. 

8.  Thus  incomparably  furnished,  he  began  to  apply 
himself  more  directly  to  the  charge  committed  to  him, 
in  the  happy  success  whereof  he  was  infinitely  advan- 
taged by  a  power  of  working  miracles  (so  much  talked 
of  among  the  ancients)  bestowed  upon  him.  As  he  was 
"returning  home  from  the  wilderness,  being  benighted, 
and  overtaken  with  a  storm,  he,  together  with  his  com- 
pany, turned  aside  to  shelter  themselves  in  a  Gentile 
temple,  famous  for  oracles  and  divinations,  where  they 
spent  the  night  in  prayers  and  hymns   to  God.     Early 

u  Ibid.  p.  980. 


478    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

in  the  morning  came  the  Gentile  priest  to  pay  the  accus- 
tomed devotions  to  the  dcemons  of  the  place,  who  had 
told  them,  it  seems,  that  they  must  henceforth  relinquish 
it  by  reason  of  him  that  lodge:!  there  ;  he  made  his  lus- 
trations, and  offered  his  sacrifices,  but  all  in  vain,  the 
dcemons  being  deaf  to  all  importunities  and  invocations. 
Whereupon  he  burst  out  into  a  rage  and  passion,  ex- 
claiming against  the  holy  man,  and  threatening  to  com- 
plain of  him  to  the  magistrates,  and  the  emperor.  But 
when  he  saw  him  generously  despising  all  his  threaten- 
ings,  and  invested  with  a  power  of  commanding  dcemons 
in  and  out  at  pleasure,  he  turned  his  fury  into  admiration, 
and  intreated  the  bishop  as  a  finther  evidence  of  that  di- 
vine authority  that  attended  him,  to  bring  the  daemons 
once  more  back  again  into  the  temple.  For  whose  satis- 
fation  he  is  said  to  have  torn  off  a  piece  of  paper,  and 
therein  to  have  written  these  words,  Gregory  to  Satan, 
enter.  Which  schedule  was  no  sooner  laid  upon  the 
altar,  and  the  usual  incense  and  oblations  made,  but  the 
daemons  appeared  again  as  they  were  wont  to  do. 
Whereby  he  was  plainly  convinced  that  it  was  an  autho- 
rity superior  to  all  infernal  powers,  and  accordingly  re- 
solved to  accompany  him ;  but  being  unsatisfied  in  some 
parts  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  was  fully  brought  over 
after  he  had  seen  St.  Gregory  confirm  his  discourse  by 
another  evident  miracle;  whereupon  he  freely  forsook 
house  and  home,  friends,  and  relations,  and  resigned  up 
himself  to  the  instructions  of  his  divine  wisdom  and  phi- 
losophy. 

9.  The  fame  of  his  strange  and  miraculous  actions 
had  prepared  'the  people  of  Neocassarea  to  entertain  him 
with  a  prodigious  reverence  and  regard,  the  people  gene- 
rally flocking  out  of  the  city  to  meet  him,  every  one  be- 
ing ambitious  to  see  the  person  of  whom  such  great 
things  were  spoken.  He  unconcerned  in  the  applause 
and  expectations  of  all  the  spectators  that  were  about 
him,  Vv^ithout  so  much  as  casting  his  eye  on  the  one  side 
or  the  other,  passed  directly  through   the  midst  of  the 

V  Id.  ibid.  p.  983. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.    4?9 

crowds  into  the  city.  Whither  being  come,  his  friends 
that  had  accompanied  him  out  of  his  solitudes,  were  very 
solicitous  where  and  by  whom  he  should  be  entertained. 
But  he  reproving  their  anxiety,  asked  them,  whether 
they  thought  themselves  banished  the  divine  protection? 
whether  God's  providence  was  not  the  best  and  safest 
refuge  and  habitation  ?  that  whatever  became  of  their 
bodies,  it  was  of  infinitely  more  importance  to  look  after 
their  minds,  as  the  only  fit  and  proper  habitations, 
which  were  by  the  virtues  of  a  good  life  to  be  trimmed 
and  prepiu'ed,  furnished,  and  built  up  for  heaven.  But 
there  wanted  not  many,  who  were  ready  enough  to  set 
open  their  doors  to  so  welcome  a  guest,  among  which 
especially  was  Musonius,  a  person  of  greatest  honour,, 
estate,  and  power  in  the  city,  who  entreated  him  to  ho- 
nour his  house  with  his  presence,  and  to  take  up  his 
lodging  there  :  whose  kindness,  as  being  first  offered  he 
accepted,  dismissing  the  rest  with  a  grateful  acknowledg-. 
ment  of  that  civility  and  respect  which  they  had  offered 
to  him. 

10.  It  was  no  little  abatement  to  the  good  man's  joy 
to  think  in  what  a  prophane  and  idolatrous  place  his  lot 
was  fallen,  and  that  therefore  it  concerned  him  to  lose 
no  time.  Accordingly  that  very  day  '*'he  fell  to  preach- 
ing, and  with  so  good  success,  that  before  night  he  had 
converted  a  little  church.  Early  the  next  morning  the 
doors  were  crowded,  persons  of  all  ranks,  ages,  infirmi- 
ties and  distempeis  flocking  to  him,  upon  whom  he 
wrought  two  cures  at  once,  healing  both  soul  and  body, 
instructing  their  minds,  convincing  their  errors,  re- 
claiming and  reforming  their  manners,  and  that  with 
ease,  because  at  the  same  time  strengthening  the  infirm, 
curing  the  sick,  healing  the  diseased,  banishing  demons 
out  of  the  possessed  ;  men  greedily  embracing  the  reli- 
gion he  taught,  while  they  beheld  such  sensible  demon- 
strations of  its  power  and  divinity  before  their  eyes,  and 
heaid  nothing  reported  but  what  was  verified  by  the 
testimony  of  their  own  senses.     Having  thus  prepared 

v:  Uhi.  siipr.  p.  985. 


480    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

a  numerous  congregation,  his  next  care  was  to  erect  a 
church  where  they  might  assemble  for  the  public  solem- 
nities of  religion,  which,  by  the  cheerful  contributions 
of  some,  and  the  industrious  labour  of  others,  was  in  a  lit- 
tle time  both  begun  and  finished.  And  the  foundations 
of  it  seem  to  have  been  laid  upon  a  firmer  basis  than 
other  buildings,  seeing  it  outstood  not  only  earthquakes, 
frequent  in  those  parts,  but  the  violent  storm  of  Diocle- 
aian's  reign,  who  commanded  the  churches  of  the  Chris- 
tians in  all  places  to  be  demolished  ;  and  was  still  stand- 
ing in  Gregory  Nyssen's  time,  who  further  tells  us,  that 
when  a  terrible  earthquake  lately  happened  in  that 
place,  wherewith  almost  all  the  buildings  both  public 
and  private  were  destroyed  and  ruined,  this  church  only 
remained  entire,  and  not  the  least  stone  was  shaken  to 
the  ground. 

1 1 .  St.  Gregory  Nyssen"  reports  one  more  memora- 
ble passage  than  the  rest ;  which  at  his  first  coming  to 
the  place  made  his  conversion  of  the  people  much  more 
quick  and  easy.  There  was  a  public  festival  held  in 
honour  of  one  of  the  gods  of  that  country,  whereto  not 
only  the  Neocaesareans,  but  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neighbour  country  came  in,  and  that  in  such  infinite 
numbers,  that  the  theatre  was  quickly  full,  and  the  crowd 
so  great,  and  the  noise  so  confused  and  loud,  that  the 
shows  could  not  begin,  nor  the  solemn  rites  be  perform- 
ed. The  people  hereupon  universally  cried  out  to  the 
d(fmoTi,  Jupiter,  we  beseech  thee  make  us  room.  St.  Gre- 
gory being  told  of  this,  sent  them  this  message,  that 
their  prayer  would  be  granted,  and  that  greater  room 
would  be  quickly  made  them,  than  they  desired.  Im- 
mediately a  terrible  plague  breake  in  upon  them,  that 
turned  their  music  into  weeping,  and  filled  all  places 
with  cries  and  dying  groans.  The  distemper  spread 
like  wild-fire,  and  persons  were  sick  and  dead  in  a  few 
moments.  The  temples,  whither  many  fled  in  hopes 
of  cure,  were  filled  with  carcasses ;  the  fountains  and 
the  ditches,  whither  the  heat  and  fervour  of  the   infee- 

s  Ibid,  p,  loor. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.    481 

tion  had  led  them  to  quench  their  thirst,  were  dammed 
up  with  the  muhitudes  of  those  that  fell  into  them ; 
Some  of  their  own  accord  went  and  sat  among  the  tombs, 
securing  a  sepulchre  to  themselves,  there  not  being  liv- 
ing enough  to  perform  the  last  offices  to  the  dead.  The 
cause  of  this  sad  calamity  being  understood,  that  it  pro- 
ceeded from  their  rash  and  foolish  invocation  of  the 
dccmon,  they  addressed  themselves  to  the  bishop,  entreat- 
ing him  to  intercede  with  his  God  (whom  they  believed 
to  be  a  more  potent  adid  superior  being)  in  their  behalf, 
that  he  would  restrain  that  violent  distemper  that  raged 
amongst  them.  He  did  so,  and  the  pestilence  abated 
and  the  destroying  angel  took  his  leave.  And  the  issue 
was,  that  the  people  generally  deserted  their  temples, 
oracles,  sacrifices,  and  the  idolatrous  rites  of  their  reli- 
gion, and  took  sanctuary  in  Christianity,  as  the  securest 
refuge,  and  the  best  way  to  oblige  heaven  to  protect 
them. 

12.  His  known  prudence,  and  the  reputation  of  his 
mighty  and  (as  my  author  ^calls  them)  apostolical  mira- 
cles advanced  him  into  so  much  favour  and  veneration 
with  the  people,  that  they  looked  upon  whatever  he  said 
or  did,  as  the  effect  of  a  divine  power.  And  even  in 
secular  causes,  where  the  case  was  any  thing  knotty  and 
difficult,  it  was  usually  brought  to  him,  whose  sentence 
was  accounted  more  just  and  impartial,  more  firm  and 
valid  than  any  other  decision  whatsoever.  It  happened 
that  two  brothers  were  at  law  about  a  lake,  which  both 
challenged  as  belonging  to  that  part  of  their  inheritance 
their  father  had  left  them.  The  umpirage  of  the  case 
was  left  to  him,  who  by  all  the  persuasive  arts  of  insinu- 
ation first  endeavoured  to  reconcile  them,  and  peaceably 
to  accommodate  the  difference  between  them.  But  his 
pains  proved  fruitless  and  ineffectual,  the  young  men 
stormed,  and  resolved  each  to  maintain  his  right  by 
force  of  arms,  and  a  day  was  set  when  they  were  to  try 
their  titles  by  all  the  power  which  their  tenants  of  each 
side  could  bring  into  the   field.     To  prevent  which  the 

Vid.  ib.  p.  986, 

3  p 


482    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGtJS. 

holy  bishop  went  the  night  before  to   the  place,   where 
he  continued  all  nighi  in  the  exercises  of  devotion,  and 
by  his  prayers  to  heaven  procured  the  lake  to  be  turned 
into  a  parcel  of  dry  and  solid  ground,  removing  thereby 
tlie  bone  of  contention  that  was  between  them,    the  re- 
mains of  which  lake  were  showed  many  ages  after.  Thus 
also''  he  is  said   to   have   miraculously  restrained   the 
violence  of  the  river  Lycus,  which  coming  down  from 
tlie  mountains  of  Armenia  with  a  swift  rapid  torrent,  and 
swelled  by  the  tributary  concurrence  of  other  rivers,  fell 
down  into  a  plain  champain  countr}",  where  overswelling 
and  sometimes  breaking  down  its   banks,   it  overflowed 
the   country  thereabouts,     to    the  irreparable    damage 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  very  often  to  the  hazard  and  loss 
of  their  liveS.    Unable  to  deal  with  it  any  other  way,  they 
applied  themselves  to  St.  Gregory  to  improve  his  interest 
in   heaven,    that  God,  who  alone  rules   the  raging  of 
the  sea,  would  put   a    stop   to  it.     He  goes  along  with 
them  to  the  place,   makes  his  address  to   him  who  has 
set  a  bound  to  the  waters,  that  they  may  not  pass  over^ 
nor  turn  again  to  cover  the  earth,  thrust  his  staff  down 
into  the  bank,  and  prayed  that  that  might  be  the  boun- 
dary of  the  insolent  and  raging  stream,  and  so  departed. 
And  it  took  effect,  the  river  ever  after  mannerly  keeping 
within  its  banks,  and  the  tradition    adds,  that  the  staff 
itself  grew  up  into  a  large  spreading  tree,  and  was  show- 
ed to  travellers  together  with  the  relation  of  the  miracle 
in  my  author's  days.     In  his  return  from  Comana*  (whi- 
ther he   had  been  invited  and   importuned  both  by  the 
magistrates  and  people,  to  constitute  a  fit  person  bishop 
of  that  city)  he  was  espied  by  two  Jews,   who  knowing 
his  charitable  temper,    either  out  of  covetousness,  or  a 
design  to  abuse  him,  agreed  to'put  a  trick  upon  him.  To 
that  purpose  one  of  them  lies  along  upon  the  ground  and 
feigns  himself  dead,  the  other  deplores  the  miserable  fate 
of  his  companion,  and  begs  of  the  holy  bishop  as  he  pas- 
sed by  to  give  somewhat  towards  his  burial,  who  taking 
off  his  coat  that  was  upon  him,  cast  it  upon  the  man,  and 

z  Ibid.  p.  990.  a  Ibid.  p.  997- 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.    433 

went  on  his  way.  No  sooner  was  he  gone  out  of  sight, 
but  the  impostor  came  laughing  to  his  fellow,  bad  him 
rise,  and  let  them  make  themselves  merry  with  the  cheat. 
He  called,  pulled,  and  kicked  him,  but  alas  in  vain,  the 
comical  sport  ended  in  a  real  tragedy,  the  man  was  dead 
indeed,  his  breath  expiring  thatvery  moment  the  garment 
was  cast  upon  him,  and  so  the  coat  really  served  for 
what  he  intended  it,  as  a  covering  to  his  burial. 

13.  In  an  age  so  remote  from  the  miraculous  ages  of 
the  church  and  after  that  the  world  has  been  so  long 
abused  by  the  impostures  of  a  church,  pretending  to 
miracles  as  one  of  the  main  notes  and  evidences  of  its 
Catholicism  and  truth,  these  passages  may  possibly  seem 
suspicious,  and  not  obtain  a  very  easy  belief  with  the 
more  scrupulous  reader.  To  which  perhaps  it  may  be 
enough  to  say,  at  least  to  justify  my  relating  them,  that 
the  things  are  reported  by  persons  of  undoubted  credit 
and  integrity,  especially  St.  Basil  and  his  brother  Gre- 
gory, both  of  them  wise  and  good  men,  and  who  lived 
themselves  within  less  than  an  hundred  years  after  our 
St.  Gregory  ;  and  what  is  more  considerable,  were  capa- 
ble of  deriving  their  intelligence  from  a  surer  hand  than 
ordinary,  their  aged  grandmother  Macrina,  who  taught 
them  in  their  youth,  and  superintended  their  education, 
having  in  her  younger  years  been  scholar  and  auditor 
of  our  3t.  Gregory,  and  from  her  I  doubt  not  they  re- 
ceived the  most  material  passages  of  his  life,  and  the  ac- 
count of  his  miracles,  of  many  whereof  she  herself  was 
capable  of  being  an  eye  witness,  and  wherewith  she  ac- 
quainted them,  as  she  also  did  with  the  doctrine  that  he 
taught,  w^herein  St.  Basil*"  particularly  tells  us  she  in- 
structed them,  and  told  them  the  very  words  which  she 
had  heard  from  him,  and  which  she  perfectly  remembered 
at  that  age.  Besides,  that  his  brother  solemnly'  professes 
in  recounting  this  great  man's  miracles,  to  set  them  down 
in  a  plain  and  naked  relation,  without  any  rhetorical  arts 
to  amplify  and  set  them  off,  "^and  to  mention  only  some 

b  Ad  Neocxsar.  Epist.  LXXV.  p.  131.  Tom.  3. 
c  Ubi.  supr,  p.  985.  d  lb.  p.  985. 


484    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

few  of  those  great  things  that  had  been  done  by  him, 
and  purposely  to  suppress  ^many  yet  in  memory,  lest 
men  of  incredulous  minds  should  disbelieve  them,  and 
count  all  fables  which  were  above  the  standard  of  their 
sentiments  and  apprehensions.  Indeed  as  to  the  main 
of  the  thing,  I  might  challenge  the  faith  of  all  ages  ever 
since,  who  have  unanimously  believed,  and  conveved  the 
report  of  it  down  to  us,  and  upon  this  account  the  title 
of  Thaumaturgus,  the  wonder-worker,  is  constantly 
and  uncontrollably  ascribed  to  him  in  the  waitings  of  the 
church.  And  St.  Basil*^  assures  us,  that  upon  this  very 
account  the  Gentiles  were  wont  to  call  him  a  second  Mo- 
ses, and  that  in  his  time  he  was  had  in  such  universal 
admiration  among  the  people  of  that  country,  and  his 
memory  so  fresh  among  them,  that  no  time  would  be 
able  to  blot  it  out. 

14.  In  this  faithful  and  successful  management  of  his 
placf;',  he  q!.)ietly  continued  till  about  the  year  250,  when 
the  emperor  '''Decins,  vexed  to  see  the  Christian  religion 
so  much  yet  the  ground  of  declining  paganism,  publish, 
ed  very  sevCd'e  edicts  against  the  Christians,  commanding 
the  governors  of  provinces  as  they  valued  their  heads,  to 
put  them  into  a  strict  and  rigorous  execution  ;  wherein 
Poiitus  and  Caj)padocia  shared  if  not  deeper,  to  be  sure 
equal  with  the  rest.  All  other  business  seemed  to  give 
vjjy  to  this,  persecuting  the  Christians  was  the  debate  of 
all  public  councils,  and  the  great  care  of  magistrates, 
\vhich  did  not  vent  itself  in  a  few  threatenings,  and  hard 
words,  but  in  studying  methods  of  cruelty,  and  instru- 
ments of  torment,  the  very  apprehension  whereof  is 
dreadful  and  amazing  to  human  nature,  swords  and  axes, 
fire,  wild  beasts,  stakes,  and  engines  to  stretch  and  dis- 
tend the  limbs,  iron  chairs  made  red  hot,  frames  of  tim- 
ber set  up  strait,  in  which  the  bodies  of  the  tormented,  as 
they  .stood  were  raked  with  nails  that  tore  off  the  flesh, 
and  innumerable  other  arts  daily  invented,  every  great 
man  being  careful  that  another  should  not  seem  to  be 
more  fierce  and  cruel  than  himself.     Some  came  in  as 

r  Ibid.  p.  1009.      f  De  Spir.  S.   c.  29,  p.  :360.Tcm.  3.      g-Id  Jbid.  p.  990. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.     48.5 

informers,  others  as  witnesses,  some  searched  all  private 
corners,  others  seized  upon  them  that  fled,  and  some  who 
gaped  for  their  neighbours'  estates,  took  hold  of  the  op- 
portunity to  accuse  and  persecute  them  for  being  Chris- 
tians. So  that  there  was  a  general  confusion  and  con- 
sternation, every  man  being  afraid  of  his  nearest  relatives^ 
the  father  not  consulting  the  safety  of  his  child,  nor  the 
child  regarding  its  duty  to  its  parents  ;  the  Gentile  son 
betraying  his  Christian  father,  and  the  infidel  father  accu- 
sing his  son  for  embracing  Christianity,  and  the  brother  ac- 
counting it  a  piece  of  piety  to  violate  the  laws  of  nature 
in  the  cause  of  religion,  and  to  condemn  his  own  brother, 
because  a  Christian.  By  this  means  the  woods  became 
full,  and  the  cities  empty,  and  yet  no  sooner  were  many 
houses  rid  of  their  proper  owners,  but  they  were  turned 
into  common  goals,  the  public  prisons  not  being  able  to 
contain  the  multitudes  of  Christians,  that  were  sent  to 
them.  You  could  not  go  into  the  markets,  or  places  of 
usual  concourse,  but  you  might  have  seen  some  appre- 
hended, others  led  to  trial  or  execution,  some  weeping, 
others  laughing  and  rejoicing  at  the  common  misery  : 
no  regard  had  to  age,  or  sex,  or  virtue,  or  merit,  but  as 
in  a  city  stormed  by  a  proud  and  potent  conqueror,  eve- 
ry thing  was  without  mercy  exposed  to  the  rage  and 
rudeness  of  a  barbarous  and  inhuman  enemy. 

15.  St.  Gregory  beholding  the  sad  and  calamitous 
state  of  the  present  time,  and  having  considered  ''seriously 
with  himself  the  frailty  and  imbecility  of  human  nature, 
and  how  few  (of  his  new  converts  especially)  would  be 
able  to  bear  up  under  those  fierce  conflicts  which  the  cause 
of  religion  would  engage  them  in,  timely  advised  his 
church  a  little  to  decline  the  force  of  the  present  storms, 
telling  them  it  was  better  by  flying  to  save  their  souls, 
than  by  abiding  those  furious  trials,  to  hazard  their  fall- 
ing from  the  faith.  And  to  let  them  see  that  this  might 
be  done,  and  th.it  herein  there  was  no  prejudice  to  their 
souls,  he  resolved  to  show  them  the  way  by  his  example, 
himself  first  retiring  out  of  danger,  retreating  to  a  desert 

h  Ibid.  p. 1001, 


486     LIFE  QF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

mountain,  accompanied  with  none  but  the  Gentile  priest 
whom  he  had  converted,  and  who  ministered  to  him  in 
the  capacity  of  a  deacon.  And  it  was  but  time  he  should 
withdraw,  the  enemy  chiefly  aiming  at  him  as  the  head 
of  the  party,  and  laying  all  possible  snares  to  take  him. 
Being  informed  where  he  lay  concealed,  they  went  in 
vast  numbers  to  hunt  him  out,  some  besetting  round  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  that  he  might  not  escape,  others 
going  up  searched  every  place  till  they  came  very  near 
him.  He  persuading  his  deacon  to  a  firm  confidence  of 
the  divine  protection,  presently  fell  to  prayer,  as  the 
other  also  did  by  his  example,  with  eyes  and  hands  lift 
up  to  Heaven.  The  persecutors  in  the  mean  time  pried 
into  all  places,  examined  every  bush  and  shrub,  every 
ere  vise  of  a  rock,  every  nook  and  hole,  but  finding  no- 
thing, returned  back  to  their  companions  at  the  bottom, 
hoping  that  by  this  time  he  might  be  fallen  into  their 
hands.  And  when  the  informer  described  the  very  place 
where  he  lay,  they  affirmed  they  saw  nothing  there  but  a 
couple  of  trees  a  little  distant  from  each  other.  The 
company  being  gone,  the  informer  staid  behind,  and 
went  directly  to  the  place,  where  finding  them  at  their 
devotions,  and  concluding  their  escape  to  be  the  imme- 
diate effect  of  a  divine  preservation  (God  having  blinded 
their  eyes  that  they  should  not  see  them)  fell  down  at  the 
bishop's  feet,  gave  up  himself  to  be  a  Christian,  and  a 
companion  of  his  solitudes  and  dangers. 

16.  Despairing  now  of  meeting  with  the  Shepherd, 
the  wolves  fell  with  the  fiercer  rage  upon  the  flock  that 
staid  behind,  and  not  there  only,  but  ran  up  and  down 
all  parts  of  the  province,  seizing  upon  men,  women,  and 
children,  that  had  but  any  reverence  for  the  name  of 
Christ,  dragging  them  to  the  city,  and  casting  them  into 
prison,  where  they  were  sure  to  be  entertained  with  va- 
riety of  tortures.'  St.  Gregory  in  the  mean  time  remain- 
ed in  his  solitary  retirement,  till  God  having  mercifully 
commanded  the  storm  to  blow  over,  and  the  tyranny  of 
the  persecution  to  cease,  he  quitted  his  shady  and  mclan- 

i  Ibid.  p.  1002. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.    487 

choly  walks,  and  came  back  to  Neocsesarea,  and  visiting 
his  diocess  all  about,  established  in  every  place  anniver- 
sarv  festivals  and  solemnities,  to  do  honour  to  the  me- 
mory of  the  martyrs,  that  had  suffered  in  the  late  perse- 
cution.    A  great  instance  of  his  wisdom  and  prudence 
at  that  time,  not  only  in  doing  right  to  the  memory  of 
the  martyrs,  but  by  this  means   training  up  people  to  a 
readier  embracing  of  religion,  when  they  saw  that  it  in- 
dulged them  a  little  mirth  and  freedom   in  the  midst  of 
those  severe  yokes  that  it  put  upon  them.     He  had  ob- 
served what  advantage  the  idolatry  of  the  Gentiles  made 
by  permitting  its  votaries  liberty  (indeed  licentiousness) 
in  their  religious  solemnities,  and  he  reasonably  presumed 
it  would  be  no  little  encouragement  to  some  to  desert 
their  superstitions,  and  come  over  to  Christianity,  if  they 
were  suffered  to  rejoice,   and  use  a  little  more  innocent 
freedom  than  at  other  times,   which  could  not  be  better 
done  than  at  the  memorials  of  the  martyrs,  though  it  can- 
not be  denied,  but  that  this  custom  produced  ill  effects 
afterwards. 

17.  In  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Gallienus  about  the 
year  260,  and  for  some  years  before,  God  being  (as  Oso- 
rius''  truly  enough  conjectures)  offended  with  the  cruel 
usage  which  tiie  Christians  met  withal  from  the  present 
powers,  was  resolved  to  punish  the  world.  And  to  that 
end  did  not  only  suffer  Valerian,  the  emperor  (friendly 
<?nough  at  first,  but  afterwards  a  bitter  persecutor  of  the 
Christians)  to  be  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  Sapor,  king 
of  Persia  (who  treated  him  with  the  highest  instances  of 
scorn  and  insolence)  but  permitted  the  northern'  nations 
like  a  mighty  inundation  to  break  down  the  banks,  and 
overflow  most  parts  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  Ger- 
mans betook  themselves  some  into  Spain,  others  passed 
the  Alps,  and  came  through  Italy  as  far  as  Ravenna  ;  the 
Alemanni  foraged  France,  and  invaded  Italy  ;  theQuades 
and  Samatae  wasted  Pannonia,  the   Parthians  fell  into 

k  Hilt.  1.  7.C.  22.  fol.oll. 
ITreb.  Poll,  in  vit.  Gallien.  c.  4,5.  p.   717,  718.  vid.  Zosim.  Hist,  lif) 
1,  p.  o52,  &.C.  :i59.  8c  Treb.  Poll,  in  vit.  Claml.   c.  8.  p.  806. 


488     LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS, 

Mesopotamia  and  Syria,  and  the  Goths  broke  in  upon 
Pontus,  Asiaj  and  some  parts  of  Greece.     Intolerable 
were  the  outrages  which  these  barbarous  people  commit- 
ted wherever  they  came,  but  especially  upon  the  Chris- 
tians, whose  goods  they  plundered,  ravished  their  wives 
and  daughters,   tortured  their  persons,   and    compelled 
them  to  offer  sacrifice,    and  communicate  in  their  idol 
feasts  :  many  of  the  renegadoes  spoiling  their  fellow 
Christians,  and  some  under  a  pretence  of  finding,  stole, 
or  at  least  kept  their  neighbours'  goods  to  their  own  use. 
In  this  general  confusion,   a  neighbour  bishop  of  those 
parts  writes  to  St.   Gregory  of  NeoccBsarea  to  beg  his 
advice  what  to  do  in  this  sad  state  of  affairs.     Who  by 
Euphrosynus  sent  back  a  canonical  epistle  (so  often  cited 
and  magnified  by  the  ancients,  and  still  extant)  to  rectify 
these  irregularities  and  disorders,  wherein  he  prescribes 
the  several  stations  and  orders  of  penitents,  but  especiciily 
reproves  and  censures  their  inordinate  avarice,  showing 
how  uncomely  it  is  in  itself,  how  unsuitable  to  Christians, 
how  abhorrent  to  God  and  all  good  men  to  covet  and 
grasp  what  is  another  man's  ;  and  how  much  more  bar- 
barous and  inhuman  in  this  calamitous  time  to  spoil  the 
oppressed,  and  to  enrich  themselves  by  the  blood  and 
ruins  of  their  miserable  brethren.     And  because  some 
might  be  apt  to  plead  they  did  not  steal,  but  only  take  up 
what  they  accidentally  met  with,  he  lets  them  know,  that 
whatever  they  had  found  of  their  neighbour's,  nay  though 
it  were  their  enemy's,  they  were  bound  by  God's  law  to 
restore  it,  much  more  to  their  brethren,  who  were  fellow- 
sufferers  with  them  in  the  same  condition.     And  if  any 
thought  it  were  warrant  enough  to  keep  what  they  had 
found,  though  belonging  to  others,  having  been   such 
deep  losers  themselves,  he  tells  them,  this  is  to  justify 
one  wickedness  with  another,  and  because  the  Goths  had 
been  enemies  to  them,   they  would  become  Goths  and 
barbarians  unto  others.     Nay  many  (as  he  tells  us)  join- 
ed in  with  the  barbarians  in  open  persecuting,   captiva- 
ting, and  tormenting  of  their  brethren.      In  all  which 
cases  he  pronounces  them  fit  to  be  excluded  the  commu- 
nion of  the   saints,  and  not  to  be  re-admitted,  till  by  a 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS.  489 

just  penance  according  to  the  various  circumstances  of 
the  case,  they  had  made  public  and  solemn  satisfaction 
to  the  church. 

18 .  Not  long  after  this,  Paulus  of  Samosata,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  began  to  broach  very  pernicious  doctrines  con- 
cerning the  person  of  our  blessed  Saviour.     To  prevent 
the  infection  whereof,   the  most  eminent  of  the  bishops 
and  clergy  of  all  those  parts  frequently  met  in  Synod  at 
Antioch,  the  chief  of  whom  were  ""  Firmilian,  bishop  of 
Cassarea  in  Cappadocia,   our  St.  Gregory,   and  his  bro- 
ther   Athenodorus,   bishop   also   in   Pontus,    and  some 
others.     The   synod  being  sat,    and  having  canvassed 
the  matter,   the  crafty  heretic  saw  it  was  in  vain  to  con- 
tend, and  therefore  dissembling  his  errors  as  well  as  he 
could,  he  confessed  what  could  not  be  hid,  and  by  a 
feigned  repentance  salved  his  credit  for  the  present,  and 
secured  his  continuance  in  that  honourable  place  he  held 
in  the  church.  This  council  was  held^nn.  Chr.  CCLXIV. 
which  our  St.  Gregory  seems  not  long  to  have  survived, 
dying  either  this,  or  most  probably  the  following  year. 
Nicephorus   ^  makes  him  to  have  lived  to  a  very  great 
age,  which  he  must,  if  (as  he  affirms)  he  died  under  Di- 
oclesian ;  and  °  Suidas,  by  a  mistake  much  more  prodi- 
gious, makes  him  to  decease  in  the  reign  of  Julian.     A 
little  before  his  death,  being  sensible  that  his  time  drew 
near,  he  sent  ^  up  and  down  the  city  and  the  vicinage  to 
make  a  strict  inquiry  whether  there  were  any  that  yet 
were  strangers  ta  the  Christian  faith      And  being  told 
that  there  were  but  seventeen  in  all,  he  sighed,  and  lifting 
up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  appealed  to   God  how  much  it 
troubled  him,    that  he   should  leave  any  part  of  men's 
salvation  incomplete,   but  that  withal  it  was  a  mercy  that 
ehallenged  the  most  grateful  resentment,   that  when  he 
himself  had  found  but  seventeen  Christians  at  his  first 
coming  thither,   he  should  leave  but  seventeen  idolaters 
to  his  successor.     Having  heartily  prayed  for  the  con- 
version of  infidels,   and  the  increase  and  consumma- 

m  Euseb.  H.  E.  I.  7-  c.  27.  p.  278.         n  Lib.  6.c.  17.  p.  408.         o  InvOc, 
rf>)jig;(^.  p.  628.         p  Gr.  Nvss.  iibi  supr.  p.  1006- 

3(i 


490    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  IFIAUMATURGUS. 

tion  of  those  that  were  converted,  he  calmly  and  peace- 
ably resigned  up  his  soul  to  God:  having  first  en- 
joined his  friends  to  make  no  trouble  about  his  funeral, 
nor  procure  him  any  proper  and  peculiar  place  of  bu- 
rial, but  that,  as  in  his  lifetime  he  had  carried  himself  as 
a  pilgrim  and  foreigner  in  the  world,  claiming  nothing 
for  himself,  so  after  death  he  might  enjoy  the  portion  of 
a  stranger,  and  be  cast  into  the  common  lot. 

19,  He  was  a  man  (says'"  St.  Basil)  of  a  prophetical  and 
apostolic  temper,  and  who  in  the  whole  of  his  life  ex- 
pressed the  height  and  accuracy  of  an  evangelical  conver- 
sation.    In  all  his  devotions  ''  he  was  wont  to  show  the 
greatest  reverence,  never  covering  his  head  in  prayer,  as 
accounting  that  of  the  apostle  most  proper  and  rational, 
that  every  one  praying  or  prophesying  with  his  head  cover- 
ed., dishonoureth  his  head.     All  oaths  he  avoided,  making 
yea  and  nay  the  usual  measure  of  his  communication. 
Out  of  regard  to  our  Lord's  threatening,  he  durst  never 
call  his  brotheryoo/;  no  anger,  wrath,  or  bitterness  pro- 
ceeded  out  of  his  mouth.      Slandering  and  reproaching 
others  he  greatly  hated,  as  a  quality  opposite  to  a  state  of 
salvation.     Envy  and  pride  were  strangers  to  his  inno- 
cent and  guileless  soul.     Never  did  he  approach  the  holy 
altar,  till  first  reconciled  to   his  brother.     He  severely 
abominated  lies  and  falsehood,  and  all  cunning  and  arti- 
ficial methods  of  detraction;   well  knowing  that  every  lie 
is  the  spawn  and  issue  of  the  devil,  and  that  God  will  de- 
stroy all  those  that  speak  lies. 

20.  His  writings  are  first  particularly  mentioned  by 
St.  Hierom, '  who  reckons  up  his  Eucharistical Panegy- 
ric to  Origen,  his  short,  and  (as  he  calls  it)  very  useful 
INIetaphrase  upon  Ecclcsiastes,  several  Epistles  (in  which 
doubtless  his  Canonical  Epistle  had  the  first  place)  and 
his  Creed  or  short  exposition  of  faith,  which,  though  not 
taken  notice  of  in  some,  is  extant  in  other  editions  of  St. 
Hicrom's  catalogue.  All  which  (some  of  his  epistles  ex- 
cepted) are  still  extant,  and  probably  are  all  he  ever  wrote- 

q  De  Spir.  S.  c.  29  p  "59.  torn.  2.      r  Id.  ad  Cler.  Neocaes.  Epist.  LXlII 
p.  97. t.  3.        s'De  Script,  in  'Jlieodor. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUxMATUKGUS.    491 

For  though  there  are  other  tracts  commonly  ascribtd  to 
him,yet  without  any  great  reason  or  evidence  to  warrant, 
their  legitimacy,  whereof  their  strongest  assertors  are  not 
very  confident.  It  appears  from  ^  St.  Basil,  that  he  was 
by  some  of  old  suspected  as  inclining  to  Sabellianism, 
which  confounded  the  persons  in  the  Holy  Trinity,  and 
that  many  sheltered  themselves  under  his  authority  from 
an  expression  of  his,  affirming  that  the  Father  and  Son  are 
two  in  the  consideration  of  the  mind,  but  one  in  person.  For 
this  St.  Basil  makes  a  large  apology,  and  shows  that  it  was 
spoken  in  the  heat  of  disputation  against  ^^lian,  a  gentile, 
a-.yfxa.TMiii,  ivK  iymf^uS^f  uot  dogmatically  as  a  point  of  doc- 
trine, but  in  haste  and  in  the  fervency  of  disputation,  when 
judgment  and  consideration  is  not  at  leisure  to  weigh 
every  thing  by  nice  scruples;  that  his  earnest  desire  to 
gain  the  gentile  made  him  less  cautious  and  solicitous 
about  exactness  of  words,  and  that  he  indulged  some- 
thing to  the  apprehensions  of  his  adversary,  that  so  he 
might  get  the  better  advantage  upon  him  in  the  greater 
and  more  important  principles;  that  this  betrayed  him 
into  some  unwary  expressions,  uhich  the  heretics  of  af- 
ter times  improved  to  bad  purposes  and  strained  to  ano- 
ther sense  than  what  was  originally  intended  by  him  that 
spake  them :  That  as  to  the  particular  charge  of  the  Sabel- 
lian  error,  "  he  was  so  far  from  it,  that  it  had  been  chief  y 
coPifuted  and  laid  asleep  by  the  evidence  of  that  very 
doctrine  which  St.  Gregory  had  preached,  the  memory 
whereof  was  preserved  fresh  among  them.  However 
nothing  can  be  more  true  and  modest  than  what  "■  St. 
Hierom  observes  in  such  cases,  that  it  is  great  rashness 
and  irreverence  presently  to  charge  the  ancients  with  he- 
resy  for  a  few  obnoxions  expressions,  since  it  may  be, 
they  erred  with  a  simple  and  an  honest  mind,  or  wrote 
them  in  another  sense,  or  the  passages  have  been  since 
altered  by  ignorant  transcribers,  or  they  took  less  heed  and 
care  to  deliver  their  minds  with  the  utmost  accuracy  and 
exactness,   while  as  yet  men  of  perverse  minds  had  not 


t  Ad  Doct.  Eccles.  Neocaesar.  Epist.  LXIV.  p.    101,         u  Ibid.  p.  99, 
V  Apol.  adv.   Ruliii.  lib.  2.  p.  219.  torn.  2. 


■•*-'., 


492    LIFE  OF  ST.  GREGORY  THAUMATURGUS. 

sown  their  tares,  nor  disturbed  the  church  with  the  cla^ 
mour  of  their  disputations,  nor  infected  men's  minds  with 
their  poisonous  and  corrupt  opinions. 


HIS     WRITINGS. 


Oenuine. 

TtuvHyv^iKav  Iw^aigiW*?  ad  Originctn. 
Metaphrasis  in  Ecclesiastem. 
Brevis  expositio  fidei. 
Epistola  Canonica. 


Alise     Epistolae     plures    quae 
non  extanti 


Supposititious* 

■H  jtiTat  fx'ff®'  n/r/c, 

Capita  XII.  de  fide, cum  Ana- 

thematismis. 
In  Annunciationem  S.  Dei  Ge- 

nitricis  Sermones  III. 
Sermo  in   Sancta  Theophania. 
Ad  Tatianum  de  Anima   >.o-^ 


THE  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS, 


BISHOP  OF  ALEXANDRIA. 


The  place  of  his  nativity.  His  family  and  relations.  I?is  conversion  how. 
His  studies  under  Origen.  Whether  a  professed  rhetorician.  His  suc- 
ceeding Heraclas  in  the  catechetic  school.  His  being  constituted  bishop 
of  Alexandria,  and  the  time  of  it.  A  preparatory  persecution  at 
Alexandria,  how  begun.  The  severity  of  it.  The  martyrdom  of  Apol- 
lonia,  and  the  fend  honours  done  her  in  the  church  of  Rome.  The  per- 
secution continued  and  pi'omoted  by  Decius's  edicts.  The  miserable 
condition  of  the  Christians.  The  sudden  conversion  and  martyrdom  of 
of  a  guard  of  soldiers.  Dionysius  apprehended  and  carried  into  banish- 
ment, tlxere  to  be  beheaded.  A  pleasant  account  of  his  unexpected  de- 
liverance by  means  of  a  drunken  rout.  His  retirement  into  the  deserts. 
His  return  to  Alexandria.  The  great  number  and  quality  of  the  lapsed 
in  the  late  persecution.  The  contests  about  this  matter.  Dionysius's 
judgment  and  practice  herein.  The  case  of  Serapion.  His  dealing  with 
Novatian  about  his  schism,  and  the  coi)y  of  his  letcer  to  him.  His  being 
engaged  in  the  controversy  about  rebaptization,  and  great  moderation 
in  it.  His  letter  to  pope  Sixtus  about  a  person  baptized  by  heretics. 
Valerianus,  the  emperor's  kindness  to  Christians.  How  turned  to  cru- 
elty. Dionysius  brought  before  /Emilian.  His  discourse  with  him  and 
resolute  constancy.  He  is  coudemned  to  be  banished.  His  transporta- 
tion into  the  deserts  of  Lybia.  The  success  of  his  ministry  there.  Innu- 
merable barbarians  converted  to  the  faith.  Gallienus's  relaxing  the 
persecution.  His  letter  to  Dionysius  granting  liberty  to  the  Christians. 
Alexandria  shut  up  by  the  usurpation  of  /Emihan.  The  divisions  with- 
in, and  siege  without.  The  horriljle  pestilence  at  Alexandria;  and  the 
singvdar  kindness  and  compassion  of  the  Christians  there  above  the 
heathens.  Dionysius's  confutation  of  Sabellius.  His  unwary  expressions 
and  the  charge  against  him.  His  vindication,  both  by  himself  and  by 
St.  Athanasius.  His  writings  against  Kepos.  Nepos  who,  and  what  his 
principles  and  followers.  Dionysius's  encounter  with  the  heads  of  the 
party  ;  his  convincing  and  reducing-  them  back  to  the  orthodox  church. 
His  engaging  in  the  controversy  against  PaulusSamosatenus.  The  loose, 
extravagant,  and  insolent  temper  and  manners  of  that  man.  Diony- 
sius's letter  to  the  synod  at  Antioch  concerning  him.  The  success  of 
that  affair.  Dionysius's  death.  His  writings  and  epistle:5,  Tiie  loss  ot 
ihem  bewailed. 


494    LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

1.  DIONYSIUS  was  in  all  probability  born  at  Alex- 
andria, where  his  parents  "seem  to  have  been  persons  of 
considerable  note  and  quality,  and  his  father,  and  possi- 
bly his  ancestors,  to  have  born  very  honourable  offices, 
and  himself  to  have  lived  some  time  in  great  secular 
pomp  and  power.  He  was  born  and  bred  a  Gentile,  but 
by  what  particular  occasion  converted  to  Christianity,  I 
know  not,  more  than  what  we  learn  from  a  vision  and 
voice  that  spake  to  him,  mentioned  by  ''himself,  that  by 
a  diligent  reading  whatever  books  fell  into  his  hand,  and 
an  impartial  examination  of  the  things  contained  in  them, 
he  was  first  brought  over  to  the  faith.  Having  passed 
his  juvenile  studies,  he  put  himself  under  the  institution 
of  the  renowned  ""Origcn,  the  great  master  at  that  time  at 
Alexandria,  famous  both  for  philosophic  and  Christian 
lectures,  after  which  he  is  said  by  some**  to  have  publicly 
professed  rhetoric  and  eloquence  ;  as  indeed  there  seems 
a  more  peculiar  vein  of  fancy  and  rhetoric  to  run  through 
those  fragments  of  his  discourses  which  do  yet  remain. 
But  I  can  scarce  believe  that  the  Dionysius  mentioned 
by  Anastasius  and  Maximus,  and  by  them  said  of  a 
rhetorician  to  be  made  bishop  of  Alexandria,  to  have 
been  the  same  with  ours,  were  it  for  no  other  reason, 
than  that  he  is  said  to  have  written  Scholia  on  the  works 
of  St.  Denys  the  Areopagite,  which  we  are  well  assured 
had  no  being  in  the  world  till  many  years  after  his  time. 
Ann.  232,  Demetrius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  being  dead, 
Heraclas  one  of  Origen's  scholars,  and  his  successor  in 
the  catechetic  school,  succeeded  in  his  room  ;  upon 
whose  preferment  Dionysius  then  presbyter  of  that 
church  was  advanced  to  his  place.  Wherein  he  dis- 
charged himself  with  so  much  care  and  diligence,  such 
universal  applause  and  satisfaction,  that  upon  Heraclas's 
death,  who  sat  fifteen  or  sixteen  years,  none  was  thought 
so  fit  to  be  aj^ain  his  successor  as  Dionysius,  who  ac- 
cordingly  entered  upon  that  see*"  Ann.  246,  tliough  Lu- 

a  Vid.Eiiseb.l.  7.  c.  11.  p.  2fi0.  A.     b  Epist.  ad  Phileni  ib.  c.  7.  p.  253. 
clbid  I.  6.  c.  29. p.  229.  Hifonde  Script,  in  Dionys.  d  Anastas.  Sinait. 

"0<ri)>-  c.  22.  p.  341.  MaNim.  S  hoi.  in  c.  5.  dc  Cce'.cst.  Hierarcli.  p.  2-1.  Tom. 
:'.  e  Euscb.  ib.  c  o5.p.  2.02. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.    495 

sebius's  Chronicon  places  it  two  years  after,  Philippi 
Imp.  Ann.  5,  expressly  contrary  to  his  history,  where 
he  assigns  the  third  year  of  that  emperor,  for  the  time  of 
his  consecration  to  that  place. 

2.  The  first  years  of  his  episcopal  charge  were  calm 
and  peaceable,  till  Decius  succeeding  in  the  empire  Ann. 
249,  turned  all  into  hurry  and  combustion,  persecuting 
the  Christians  with  the  utmost  violence,  whereof  the 
church  of  Alexandria  had  a  heavy  portion.  Indeed  the 
persecution  there  had  begun' a  year  before,  while  Philip 
the  emperor  was  yet  alive,  upon  this  occasion  :  A  certain 
Gentile  priest  or  poet  led  the  dance,  exciting  the  people 
of  that  place  (naturally  prone  to  superstition)  to  revenge 
the  quarrel  of  their  gods.  The  multitude  once  raised, 
ran  on  with  an  uncontrollable  fury,  accounting  cruelty  to 
the  C!iristians,  the  only  instance  of  piety  to  their  gods. 
Immediately  they  lay  hands  upon  one  Metras,  an  aged 
man,  who  refusing  to  blaspheme  his  Saviour,  they  beat 
him  with  clubs,  pricked  him  in  the  face  and  eyes  with 
sharp  reeds,  and  afterwards  leading  him  into  the  suburbs, 
stoned  him.  The  next  they  seized  on  was  a  woman 
called  Quinta,  whom  they  carried  to  the  temple,  where 
having  refused  to  worship  the  idol,  she  was  dragged  by 
the  feet  through  the  streets  of  the  city  over  the  sharp 
flints,  dashed  against  great  stones,  scourged  with  whips, 
and  in  the  same  place  despatched  by  the  same  death. 
Apollonia,  an  ancient  virgin,  being  apprehended,  had  all 
her  teeth  dashed  out,  and  was  threatened  to  be  burnt 
alive,  who  only  begging  a  little  respite,  of  her  own  ac- 
cord cheerfully  leapt  into  the  flames.  Incredible  it  is 
(but  that  the  case  is  evident  from  more  instances  than 
one)  with  how  fond  a  veneration  the  church  of  Rome 
celebrates  the  memory  of  this  martyr.^  They  infinitely 
extol  her  for  the  nobility  of  her  birth,  the  eminent  piety 
and  virtues  of  her  life,  her  chastity,  humility,  frequent 
fastings,  fervent  devotions,  &cc.  (though  not  one  syllable 
of  all  this  mentioned  by  any  ancient  writer)   bring  in  a 

f  Ep.  ejus  ad.  Fab.  ibid.  c.  41.  p.  236.  g- Vid.  BoUand.  devit.  SS.  ad 

Febr.  IX. 


496     LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS, 

voice  from  Heaven  styling  her,  the  spouse  of  Christ,  and 
telling  her,  that  God  had  granted  her  what  she  had  asked. 
They  make  her  the  tutelar  goddess  or  guardian  of  all  that 
are  troubled  with  the  tooth  or  headach,  and  in  many  so- 
lemn offices  of  that  church,  pray  that  at  her  intercession 
God  would  cure  them  of  those  pains  ;  nay  formally  ad- 
dress their  prayers  to  her,  that  she  would  intercede  with 
God  for  them  on  that  behalf,  and  by  her  passion  obtain  for 
them  (they  are  the  very  words  of  the  prayer)  the  remis- 
sion of  all  the  sins  which  -with  teeth  and  mouth  they  had 
committed  through  gluttony  and  speaking.  Innumerable 
are  the  miracles  reported  of  her,  and  to  me,  it  seems  a 
miracle,  and  to  exceed  all  the  rest,  were  it  true,  what  is 
related  of  the  vast  number  of  her  teeth.  For  besides 
those  which"  are  preserved  among  the  reliques  of  foreign 
churches  (which  are  not  a  few)  we  are  ^told,  that  when 
king  Edward,  then  afflicted  with  the  tooth-ache,  com- 
manded that  all  St.  Apollonia's  teeth  in  the  kingdom 
should  be  sought  out  and  sent  him  ;  so  many  were 
brought  in,  that  several  great  tuns  could  not  hold  them. 
It  seems  they  were  resolved  to  make  her  ample  amends 
for  those  few  teeth  she  lost  at  the  time  of  her  martyrdom. 
But  it  is  time  to  return  to  the  Alexandrian  persecution, 
where  they  every  where  broke  open  the  Christian's 
houses,  taking  away  the  best  of  their  goods,  and  burning 
what  was  not  worth  the  carrying  away.  A  Christian 
could  not  stir  out  day  or  night,  but  they  presently  cried 
out,  Azvay  with  him  to  the  f  re.  In  which  manner  they 
continued,  till  quarrelling  among  themselves  they  fell 
foul  upon  one  another,  and  gave  the  Christians  a  little 
breathing  time  from  the  pursuits  of  their  malice  and  in- 
humanity. 

3.  In  this  posture  stood  affairs  when  Decius  having 
usurped  the  empire,  routed  and  killed  his  master  Philip, 
his  edict  arrived  at  Alexandria,  which  gave  new  life  to 
their  rage  and  cruelty.  And  now  they  fall  on  afresh,  and 
persons  of  all  ages,  qualities,  and  professions,  are  accu- 
sed, summoned,  dragged,  tortured,  and  executed,  with 

h  Vid.  Chemnit.  exiiin.  Concll.  TriJ.  Part.  IV.  de  rcliq.  SS.  p.  13.  col.  1. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANBRINUS.     497 

all  imaginable  severity;  multitudes  of  whom  'Dionysius 
particularly  reckons  up,  together  with  the  manner  of 
their  martyrdom  and  execution.  Vast  numbers''  that 
fled  for  shelter  to  the  woods  and  mountains,  met  with  a 
worse  deatli  abroad,  than  that  which  they  sought  to  avoid 
at  home,  being  famished  with  hunger  and  thirst,  starved 
with  cold,  overrun  with  diseases,  surprised  by  thieves, 
or  worried  by  wild  beasts,  and  many  taken  by  the  Arabs 
and  barbarous  Saracens,  who  reduced  them  into  a  state 
of  slavery  more  miserable  than  death  itself.  In  this  evil 
time  though  many  revolted  from  the  faith,  yet  others 
maintained  their  station  with  a  firm  and  unshaken  cou- 
rage, and  several  who  till  that  moment  had  been  stran- 
gers and  enemies  to  the  Christian  religion,  on  a  sudden 
came  in  and  publicly  professed  themselves  Christians  in 
open  defiance  of  those  immediate  dangers  that  attended 
it.  Whereof  one  instance  may  suffice.  One  who  was 
thought  to  be  a  Christian,  and  ready  to  renounce  his  re- 
ligion, being  led  into  the  place  of  judicature,  Amnion, 
Zeno,  and  the  rest  of  the  military  guard  that  stood  at 
the  door,  derided  him  as  he  was  going  in,  gnashing  upon 
him  with  their  teeth,  and  making  such  grimaces,  such 
mimic  and  antic  gestures,  that  all  men's  eyes  were 
upon  them.  When  behold  on  a  sudden  before  any  one 
laid  hand  upon  them,  they  came  into  open  court,  and 
unanimously  professed  themselves  to  be  Christians.  An 
accident  wherewith  the  governors  and  assessors  upon  the 
bench  were  strangely  surprised  and  troubled.  The  con- 
demned were  cheerful  and  courageous,  and  most  ready 
to  undergo  their  torments,  while  the  judges  themselves 
were  amazed  and  trembled.  Sentence  being  passed  up- 
on them,  they  went  out  of  court  in  a  kind  of  pomp  and 
state,  rejoicing  in  the  testimony  they  were  to  give  to  the 
faith,  and  that  God  would  so  gloriously  triumph  in  their 
execution. 

4.  St.  Dionysius  bore  a  part  in  the   common  tragedy, 
though  God  was  pleased  to  preserve  him  from  the  hist 

i  Ih-rA.  p   Jtl*.  k  lb.  c.  ■!■?:.  n.  2^0- 

3     il 


498    LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRmuS. 

and  severest  act,  as  a  person  eminently  useful  to  his 
church.  No  sooner  had  'Sabinus  the  prsefect  received 
the  imperial  orders,  but  he  immediately  despatched  a 
frumentarius,  or  military  officer  (whose  place  it  was  to 
seize  delinquents,  and  inquire  out  seditious  reports  and 
practices  againsc  the  state,  and  therefore  particularly  be- 
longed to  judges  and  governors  of  provinces)  to  appre- 
hend him.  The  serjeant  went  all  about,  and  narrowly 
ransacked  every  corner,  searching  all  ways  and  places 
where  he  thought  he  might  hide  himself,  but  in  the  mean 
time  never  searched  his  own  house,  concluding  he  would 
not  dare  to  abide  at  home,  and  yet  there  he  stayed  four 
days  together,  expecting  the  officers  coming  thither.  At 
length  being  warned  of  God,  he  left  his  house  with  his 
servants  and  some  of  the  brethren  that  attended  him, 
but  not  long  after  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  soldiers,  and 
having  received  his  sentence,  was  conducted  by  a  guard 
under  the  command  and  conduct  of  a  centurion  and 
some  other  officers  to  Taposiris,  a  little  town  between 
Alexandria  and  Canopus,  there  probably  to  be  beheaded 
with  less  noise  and  clamour.  It  happened  in  the  mean 
W'hile  that  Timotheus  one  of  his  friends,  knowing  nothing 
of  his  apprehension,  came  to  the  house  where  he  had  been, 
and  finding  it  empty,  and  a  guard  at  the  door,  fled  after 
him  in  a  great  amazement  and  distraction,  whom  a  coun- 
tryman meeting  upon  the  road,  inquired  of  him  the 
cause  why  he  made  so  much  haste.  He  probably  sup- 
posing to  have  heard  some  news  of  them,  gave  him  a 
broken  and  imperfect  relation  of  the  matter.  The  man 
was  going  to  a  wedding  feast  (which  there  they  were 
wont  to  keep  all  night)  and  entering  the  house  told  his 
company  what  he  had  heard.  They  heated  with  wine, 
and  elevated  with  mirth,  rose  all  up  and  ran  out  of  doors, 
and  with  a  mighty  clamour  came  tov/ards  the  place 
where  he  was.  The  guard  hearing  such  a  noise  and  con- 
fusion at  that  time  of  night,  left  their  prisoner  and  ran 
awav,  v.hcm  the  rabble  comino,  in  found  in  bed.  The 
good  man  supposhig  them  to  be  thieves,  was  reaching 

i  E;!sl.  Di.'ii.  aJ  Gci  i)i:.ir.  ii.id  c.  40.  p.  235. 


'ft 
LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.    499 

his  clothes  that  lay  by  him  to  give  them ;  but  they  com- 
manded him  to  rise  presently  and  go  along  with  them, 
whereat  he  besought  them  (understanding  now  the  errand 
upon  which  they  came)  to  dismiss  him  and  depart,  at 
least  to  be  so  kind  to  him,  as  to  take  the  soldier's  office 
upon  them,  and  themselves  behead  him.  While  he  was 
thus  passionately  importuning  them,  they  forced  him  to 
rise,  and  when  he  had  thrown  himself  upon  the  ground, 
they  began  to  drag  him  out  by  the  hands  and  feet,  but 
quitted  him  not  long  after,  and  returned  it  is  like  to  their 
drunken  sports.  This  tragi-comic  scene  thus  over,  Caius 
and  Faustus,  Peter  and  Paul,  presbyters,  and  his  fellow- 
prisoners,  took  him  up,  and  leaving  the  town,  set  him 
upon  an  ass,  and  conveyed  him  away""  into  a  desolate 
and  uncomfortable  part  of  the  desarts  of  Lybia,  where 
he,  together  with  Peter  and  Caius,  lay  concealed,  till  the 
storm  Avas  over-past. 

5.  The  persecution  being  in  a  great  measure  blown 
over  by  the  death  of  Decius,  Dionysius  came  out  of  his 
solitudes,  and  returned  to  Alexandria,  where  he  found 
the  affairs  of  his  church  infinitely  entangled  and  out  of 
order,  especially  by  reason  of  those  great  numbers  that 
had  denied  the  faith,  and  lapsed  into  idolatry  in  the  late 
persecution,  among  which  were  many  of  the  wealthy  and 
the  honourable,  and  who  had  places  of  authority  and 
power ;  some  freely  renouncing  others  so  far  degene- 
rating from  the  gallantry  of  a  Christian  spirit,  that  when 
cited  to  appear  and  sacrifice  to  the  gods  (as  he  tells  us°) 
they  trembled,  and  looked  as  pale  and  ghastly,  as  if  they 
had  come  not  to  offer,  but  to  be  made  a  sacrifice,  inso- 
much that  the  very  Gentiles  derided  and  despised  them. 
Most  of  these,  after  his  return,  sued  to  be  readmitted  to 
the  communion  of  the  church,  which  the  ecclesiastic 
discipline  of  those  times  did  not  easily  allow  of,  especi- 
ally after  the  Novation  principles  began  to  prevail,  which 
denied  all  communion  to  the  lapsed,  though  expressing 
their  sorrow  by  never  so   long   and  great  a  penance. 

m  Vid.  Epist.  ejus  ad  Domit.  ib.  I.  7.  c.  11.  p.  260,         n  ib.  1.  6.  c,  40,  p. 

238. 


500    LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS, 

Upon  what  occasion  Novatus  and  his  partner  Novatiaij 
first  started  this  rigorous  and  severe  opinion,  how  ea- 
gerly Cyprian  and  the  African  bishops  stickled  against 
it,  how  far  it  was  condemned  both  there  and  at  Rome,  in 
wh.;t  cases  and  by  what  measures  of  penance  the  lapsed 
penitents  were  to  be  taken  in,  we  have  already  noted  in 
Cyprian's  life.  St.  Dionysius  was  of  the  moderate  party, 
wherein  he  had  the  concurrence  of  most  of  the  eastern 
bishops,  and  as  he  "pleads  the  general  judgment  and 
practice  of  the  holy  martyrs,  many  of  whom  had  before 
their  death  received  the  lapsed  upon  their  repentance 
again  into  the  church,  and  had  themselves  freely  com- 
municated with  them.  Whose  judgment  he  thought  it 
not  reasonable  should  be  despised,  nor  their  practice 
controlled,  nor  the  accustomed  order  overturned.  In- 
deed he  himself  had  ever  observed  this  course,  and  there- 
fore at  the  beginning  of  the  persecution  had  given  i*order 
to  the  presbyters  of  the  church  to  restore  peace,  and  give 
the  eucharist  to  penitents,  especially  in  danger  of  deaths 
and  where  the}-  had  before  earnestly  desired  it.  Which 
was  done  accordingly,  as  appears  from  the  memorable 
instance  of  Serapion,  an  aged  person,  mentioned  by  him, 
who  having  lapsed  in  the  time  of  persecution,  had  often 
desired  reconciliation,  but  in  that  confused  time  could 
not  obtain  it :  but  being  suddenly  surprised  by  a  sum- 
mons of  death,  and  having  laid  three  days  speechless, 
on  the  fourth  had  only  so  much  use  of  his  tongue  re- 
stored him,  as  to  bid  his  nephew,  a  boy  that  attended 
him,  go  for  one  of  the  presbyters,  to  give  him  absolu- 
tion, without  which  he  could  not  die.  The  presbyter 
was  at  that  time  sick,  but  pitying  the  man's  case,  gave 
the  boy  a  little  part  of  the  consecrated  eucharist,  which 
he  kept  by  him,  bidding  him  moisten  it,  and  put  it  into 
"his  mouth.  Which  was  no  sooner  done,  but  he  breath- 
ed  out  his  soul  with  unspeakable  comfort  and  satisfac- 
tion, that  he  now  died  in  communion  with  the  church. 

6.  Nor  was  his  care  herein  confined  to  his  single  dio- 
ciess,  but  he  wrote  letters  about  this  matter  to  most  of 

o  Epht.  ad  Fab,  Ibid.  c. 42.  p.  241.        p Ibid.  c. 44.  p.  246. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.     501 

the  eminent  bishops  and  governors  of  the  church. 
And  that  he  might  leave  nothing  unattempted,  he  treat- 
ed with  Novatian  (or  as  he  calls  him  Novatus)  himself, 
endeavouring  by  all  mild  and  gentle  methods  to  reduce 
him  to  the  peace  and  order  of  the  church.  His  epistle 
to  hi-Ti,  being  but  short  and  very  pathetical,  we  shall 
herq  subjoin.** 

Dionysius  to  Novatus  our  brother,  greeting : 

Forasmuch  as  yourself  confess  you  were  unwillingly 
drawn  into  this  schism,  make  it  appear  so  by  your  wil- 
ling and  ready  returning  to  the  church.  For  better  it 
were  to  suffer  any  thing,  than  that  the  church  of  God 
should  be  rent  asunder.  Nor  is  it  less  glorious  to  suffer 
martyrdom  upon  this  account,  than  in  the  case  of  not 
sacrificing  to  idols.  Yea,  in  my  mind  much  more  ho- 
nourable. For  in  the  one  case  a  man  suffers  only  for 
his  own  soul,  but  in  this  he  undergoes  martyrdom  for 
the  whole  church  of  God.  And  if  now  thou  shalt  per- 
suade and  reduce  thy  brethren  to  peace  and  concord, 
thy  merit  will  outweigh  thy  crime.  The  one  will  not 
be  charged  to  thy  reproach,  and  the  other  will  be  men- 
tioned to  thy  praise.  And  suppose  thou  shalt  not  be 
able  to  persuade  them,  yet  however  save  thy  own  soul. 
I  pray  that  thou  mayest  live  peaceably,  and  farewell  in 
the  Lord. 

7.  No  sooner  had  he  well  rid  his  hands  of  this,  but 
he  was  engaged  in  another  controversy,  which  involved 
and  disturbed  the  whole  Christian  church:  I  mean  that 
concerning  the  rebaptizing  those  who  had  been  baptized 
by  heretics,  so  hotly  disputed  between  St.  Cyprian  and 
Stephen  bishop  of  Rome.  ""Dionysius,  together  with 
Firmiiian  bishop  of  Cassarea  in  Cappadocia,  and  a  great 
many  others  in  the  east,  stood  on  Cyprian's  side,  main- 
taining that  they  ought  to  be  baptized.  But  however 
carried  himself  in  it  with  great  temper   and  modera- 

q  Ibid.  c.  45-  p.  247.         r  Ibid.  1. 7.  c.  4,  p.  250, 


502     LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

tlon  ;  he  distinguished  between  apostates  who  had  re- 
ceived their  baptism  in  the  Cathohc  church,  and  those 
upon  their  return  they  did  not  baptize  (as  Cyprian  also 
affirms)  but  only  admitted  by  imposition  of  hands,  and 
this  rule  and  practice,  he  tells  us',  he  had  learned  from 
his  predecessor  Heraclas  :  but  then  for  pure  heretics, 
M'ho  had  no  other  baptism  than  what  had  been  conferred 
by  heretical  persons  (which  in  reality  was  null  and  of  no 
affect)  these  he  thought  fit  to  be  entered  into  the  church 
by  Catholic  baptism.  Besides  that,  he  engaged  more  as 
a  mediator,  than  a  party,  writing-  to  Pope  Stephen  to  use 
moderation  in  the  case,  as  he  did  also  to  Sixtus's  succes- 
sor, and  most  other  bishops  of  that  time.  Indeed  that 
he  was  not  stiff  and  rigorous  in  his  sentiments,  may  ap- 
pear from  the  instance  he  relates*  in  his  epistle  to  pope 
Sixtus,  wherein  he  begs  his  advice.  A  certain  man  in 
his  church,  who  went  among  the  class  of  the  faithful, 
both  in  his  and  his  predecessor's  days,  beholding  the 
form  and  manner  of  baptism  as  it  was  administered 
among  the  orthodox,  came  to  Dionysius,  and  with  tears 
bewailed  his  own  case,  and  falling  at  his  feet,  confessed 
that  the  baptism  which  he  had  received  among  the  here- 
tics was  nothing  like  this,  but  full  of  blasphemy  and  im- 
piety ;  that  for  this  reason  he  was  infinitely  troubled  in 
conscience,  and  durst  not  lift  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  beg- 
ging that  he  might  partake  of  the  true  and  sincere  bap- 
tism, and  that  grace  and  acceptation  that  was  conferred 
by  it.  This  Dionysius  would  not  admit,  telling  him 
that  his  long  communion  with  the  church  was  equivalent 
to  it,  that  he  that  had  so  often  been  present  at  the  giving 
of  thanks,  and  said  Amen  to  the  prayers  of  the  congrega- 
tion, that  had  stood  before  the  holy  table,  and  had  taken 
the  holv  food  into  his  hands,  and  been  so  very  long  par- 
taker of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
that  having  done  thus  for  so  many  years  together,  he 
durst  not  admit  him  to  another  baptism  :  bidding  him 
to  be  of  good  cheer,  and  with  a  firm  faith  and  a  good 
consciencr.  approach  the  holy  sacrament.     All  which 

s  Ib.c.7.  p.  255.        t  Ibid.  c.  9.  p. 254. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.     503 

notwithstanding  did  not  quiet  the  man's  mind,  but  that 
still  he  drooped  under  his  fears  and  scruples,  durst  not 
be  present  at  the  Lord's  t.ible,  nor  could  hardly  be  per- 
suaded to  come  to  the  public  prayers.  What  answer 
Sixtus  returned  to  this  instance  is  uncertain  :  but  by 
this  it  is  evident  that  St.  Dionysius  was  no  zealot  for 
the  contrary  opinion,  thougli  it  must  be  confessed, 
there  was  something  particular  in  this,  that  occurred 
not  in  ordinary  cases,  he  presuming  that  so  long  a  com- 
munion with  the  church,  so  continued  and  open  a  pro- 
fession of  the  orthodox  faith  did  tantamount  a  being  le- 
gally initiated  and  baptized  into  it. 

8.   In  these  contests  he    passed   over  the   short  reign 
of  Gallus,  Decius's  successor,  who  not  taking  warning" 
by  his  predecessor's  error,  stumbled  at  the  same   stone. 
And  when  he  found  all  things  quiet  and  peaceable,  must 
needs  fall  a  persecuting  the    Christians,  whose    prayers 
widi  heaven    secured  the  peace   and   prosperity  of  the 
empire.     But  this,  alas,  was  but  a  preparatory  storm  to 
that  which  followed  in  the  reign  of   Valerian,  whom  our 
Dionysius  ^makes  to  be  the  beast  in  the   Revelation,  to 
whom  was  given  a  mouth  speaking  great  things,  and  blas- 
phemies, and  power  was  given  unto  him  to  continue  forty 
and  two  months.     He  was  at  first   extraordinarily   kind 
to  Christians   beyond  any  of  the   precedent    emperors, 
even  those  who  were  themselves  accounted   Christians  : 
so  that  his  whole  family  was  full  of  pious  and  good  men, 
and  his  house  a  kind  of  church.     But  this  u^eather  was 
too  fair  and  benign  to  last  long  :  Being  seduced  and  de- 
luded by  an  arch  magician  of  Egypt,  he  was   prevailed 
with  to  fall  from  his  kindness,  and  to  persecute  the  Chris- 
tians, whom  the  conjurer  represented  as  persons,  who 
by  wicked  and  execrable  charms  hindred  the  emperor's 
prosperity,  colouring  his  pretence  from  their  power  over 
daemons,  whose  mischievous  arts  they  abstracted,  and 
whom  they  ordinarily  banished  with   the  speaking  of  a 
word  ;  and  persuading  him  that  to  urge  the  Gentile  rites, 
to  maintain  lustrations,  sacrifices,    divinations   by  the 

u  Dion  Epist.  ad  Hermarum.  ib.  c.  1  p.  250.        v  Ibid.  c.  10  p.  2S5 


5J04    LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

blood  and  entrails  of  men  and  beasts,  v/as  the  ready  way 
to  make  him  happy.  Whereupon  edicts  were  every 
where  published  against  the  Christians,  and  they  without 
the  least  protection  exposed  to  the  common  rage. 

9.  Orders  being  come  to  Alexandria,   Dionysius  "^ac- 
companied with  some  of  his  clergy,  addressed   himself 
to  i^milian  the  governor,  who  did  not  at  first  downright 
forbid  him  to  hold  their  solemn  assemblies,  but  endea- 
voured to  persuade  him  to  leave  off  that  way  of  worship, 
presuming   others  would  quickly   follow  his  example. 
The  answer  he  returned  was  short  and  apostolical,   that 
we  must  obey  God  Tather  than  men.,  openly  assuring  him, 
that  he  would  worship  the  true  God,  and  none  but  him, 
from  which   resolution  he  would  never  start,    nor  ever 
cease  to  be  a  Christian.     The  governor   told  them,  that 
both  by  word  and  writing  he  had  acquainted  them  with 
the  great  clemency  of  the  emj^erors  towards  them,  per- 
mitting them  to  be  safe,  if  they  would    but  act  agreeably 
to  nature,   and  adore  the   gods  that  were   protectors  of 
the  empire,  and  he  hoped  they  would  be  more  grateful 
than  to  refuse  it.       The  bishop  replied,   that  every  one 
worshipped  those  whom  they  thought  to  be  gods,  that  as 
for  themselves  they  adored  and  served  that  one  God   who 
is  the  creator  of  the  world,  and  who  gave   that   govern- 
ment to    the  emperors,   and  to   whom  they   offered  up 
daily  prayers  for  the  permanency  and  stability  of  their 
empire.     To  which  the  other  rejoined,   that  if  he  were 
a  God,  none  hindred  them  from  worshipping  him  toge- 
ther with  them  who  were  truly  gods,  they  being  enjoin- 
ed to  worship  (not  one,  but)  gods,  and  those  whom  all 
men  owned  to  be  so.     Dionysius  answered,  ive   ccmnot 
worship  any  other.     "  I  see,   replied  ^'^milian,  that  }ou 
are  a  company  of  foolish  and  ungrateful  people,  and  not 
sensible  of  the  favour  of  our  lords  the  emperours  :  where- 
fore you  shall  stay  no  longer  in    this  city,  but   be  sent 
to  Cephro  in  the  parts  of  Lvbia,  for  thither  accordijig  to 
the   emperor's   command,  I  resolve  to  banish  you.   Nor 
shall  either  you,  or  any  of  your  sect  liave  leave  to  keop 

w  Ep,  ejus  ad  Germ.  ib.  c.  11.  p.  257-^, 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.     SQ3 

your  meetings,  or  to  frequent  your  coemeteria  ;  which 
if  any  dare  to  attempt,  it  shall  be  at  his  peril,  and  he  shall 
be  punished  suitably  to  his  crime.  Be  gone,  therefore, 
to  the  place  allotted  you." 

10.  The  sentence  wa^  speedily  put  into  execution,  Di- 
onysius  though  then  sick,  not  bemg  allowed  one  day's 
respite  to  recover  himself,  or  provide  for  his  journey 
thither.  Indeed  when  he  came  distinctly  to  understand 
the  place  of  his  exile,  he  was  a  little:  troubled,  knowing 
it  to  be  a  place  destitute  of  the  society  of  good  men,  and 
perpetually  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  thieves  and  rob- 
bers ;  but  was  better  satisfied  when  told  that  it  was  near 
a  great  and  populous  city,  whose  neighbourhood  would 
furnish  him  with  persons  both  for  converse,  and  for  op- 
portunities of  conversion.  Cephro  was  the  most  rude 
and  barbarous  tract  of  the  Lybian  desert,  and  Colythius 
(which  as  ""Nicephorus  tells  us,  was  that  particular  part 
of  it  to  which  Dionysius  was  designed)  the  most  un- 
comfortable it  is  like  of  all  the  rest.  Thither,  therefore, 
was  he  sent,  whom  great  numbers  of  Christians  quickly 
followed,  partly  from  Alexandria,  and  partly  out  of  other 
parts  of  Egypt.  At  his  first  arrival  he  was  treated  with 
rudeness  and  showers  of  stones,  but  had  not  been  long 
there,  before  he  not  only  civilized  their  barbarous  man- 
ners, but  reclaimed  them  from  idolatry,  and  brought 
them  to  embrace  the  Christian  faith.  And  as  he  met 
with  success,  so  he  shifted  his  quarters,  preaching  up 
and  down  those  wild  and  disconsolate  parts,  and  turning 
the  wilderness  into  a  church.  Nor  could  all  the  malice 
and  threatenings  of  the  governor  hinder,  but  that  the 
Christians  still  assembled  at  Alexandria,  notwithstanding 
that  their  beloved  bishop  was  ravished  from  therh,  and 
that  iEmilian  proceeded  with  the  utmost  rigour  against 
all  that  were  brought  before  him,  killing  many  with  all 
the  arts  of  cruelty,  keeping  others  for  the  rack  and  tor- 
ment, loading  them  with  chains,  and  thrusting  them  into 
squallid  and  nasty  dungeons,  forbidding  any  of  their 
friends  to  come  near  them.     Though  even  in  the  height 

^  J,ib.  6.  c.  10.  p.  40?. 

3   s 


o06     LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

of  these  afflictions  God  supported  their  spirits,  and  ani- 
matd  oil.e  b  to  venture  in,  and  to  administer  comfort 
and  necessaries  to  them,  not  scrupling  though  with  the 
peril  of  h.  ir  heads  to  inter  the  bodies  of  the  martyrs. 

1 1.  HovV  long  Dionysius  continued  in  his  banishment, 
I  find  not,  probably  till  Valerian  was  taken  captive  by 
the  king  of  Persia,  Ann.  259,  when  Gallienus's  son  ruled 
alone,  who  from  the  unhappiness  of  his  father  took  the 
measures  of  his  carriage  towards  the  Christians  :  he  saw 
that  while  he  favoured  the  Christians,  Heaven  smiled 
upon  his  designs,  and  things  went  on  in  a  smooth  and 
uninterrupted  course  ;  but  when  once  he  began  to  bear 
hard  upon  them,  the  tide  turned,  and  the  divine  ven- 
geance pursued  and  overtook  them,  and  that  therefore 
nothing  could  be  more  prudent  and  reasonable,  than  to 
give  a  check  to  the  present  fury,  and  suffer  them  to  go 
on  securely  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  which  he 
did  by  this  following  edict.'' 


Emperour  Caesar  P.  Lic'mius  GALLIENUS,  Pius,  Fe- 
lix^ Augustus^  to  Dionysius,  Pifmas,  Demetrius,  and 
the  rest  of  the  Bishops. 

WE  have  given  order  that  the  indulgence  of  our 
bounty  shall  be  extended  throughout  the  world,  that  all 
religious  places  shall  be  freed  from  force  and  violence. 
Wherefore  ye  also  may  freely  enjoy  the  benefit  of  our 
rescript,  so  as  no  man  shall  dare  to  vex  or  molest  you, 
and  what  you  now  may  lawfully  enjoy  has  been  long  since 
granted  by  us.  And  for  this  end  Aurelius  Cyrenius, 
our  high  steward  shall  keep  the  copy  of  this  edict  which 
we  have  now  granted. 

The  like  rescript  he  c^lso  sent  to  other  bishops,  giving 
them  the  free  leave  of  their  coemeteria,  the  places  where 
they  buried  their  dead,  and  often  assembled  for  their  re- 

Y  Euseb.  1.  f.  c.  13.  p.  26r. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.     507 

ligious  solemnities,  especially  the  memorials  of  the  mar- 
tyrs. 

12.  Scarce  was  Dionysius  quietly  re-settled  at  home, 
when  he  was  alarmed  by  another  accident,  which  forced 
him  for  awhile  again,  if  not  to  retire,  at  least  to  keep 
so  close,  that  he  was  not  capable  to  execute  his  charge, 
^..■^milianus  the  prse feet  partly  by  his  own  ambition,  and 
partly  forced  by  an  unhappy  accident  wherein  he  was  in- 
volved,  took  the  empire  upon  him,  the  Roman  army  in 
Egypt  joining  with  him,  partly  out  of  dislike  to  Gallie- 
nus,  partly  out  of  aftection  to  ^Emilian,  who  was  a  brisk 
active  man.  Immediately  he  seized  upon  the  store- 
houses, that  country  being  the  common  granary  of  the 
empire.  Gallienus  being  acquainted  with  the  news,  or- 
dered Theodotus  his  general  to  march  with  an  army  in- 
to those  parts,  who  besieged  Alexandria,  and  reduced 
the  city  to  great  extremity.  For  they  were  not  more 
vigourously  assaulted  by  the  enemy  from  without,  than 
undermined^  by  parties  and  factions  within,  the  city  be- 
ing divided  into  two  factions,  one  contending  for  Gallie- 
nus, and  the  other  for  iEmilian.  So  that  there  was  no 
converse  nor  commerce  between  them,  Dionysius  bemg 
compelled  in  all  his  private  affairs,  and  the  public  con- 
cernment of  his  church  to  transact  with  his  friends  by 
letters,  it  being  safer,  as  he  tells  us,  for  a  man  to  travel 
from  east  to  west,  than  to  pass  from  one  part  of  Alexan- 
dria to  another,  so  barbarous  and  inhuman  were  the  out- 
rages committed  there.  The  issue  was,  that  Gallienus's 
party  prevailed  to  let  in  Theodotus  and  his  army,  who 
seized  the  tyrant,  and  sent  him  to  the  emperor,  who 
caused  him  to  be  strangled  in  prison. 

13.  How  stormy  and  tempestuous  is  the  region  of 
this  lower  world  !  one  wave  perpetually  pressing  upon 
the  neck  of  another.  The  persecution  was  seconded  by 
a  civil  war  and  a  cruel  famine,  and  that  no  sooner  over, 
but  a  terrible  plague  followed  close  at  the   heels  of  it, 

z  Tr.  Poll,  in  vit.  JEniil.  p.  778.  &  in  vit.  Gall.   c.  4.   p.  715. 
a  Dionys.  Episl.   adHierarch.  ib.  c.  21.  p.  266. 


508     LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

one  of  the  most  dreadful  and  amazing  judgments  which 
God  sends  upon  mankind.  It  overran  city  and  coun- 
try, sweeping  away  what  the  fury  of  the  kite  wars  had 
left,  there  not  having  been  known  (saith  the  historian^) 
in  any  age  so  great  a  destruction  of  mankind.  This  pes- 
tilence (which  some  say*"  came  first  out  of  Ethiopia)  be- 
gan in  the  reign  of  Gallus  and  V'olusian,  and  ever  since 
more  or  less  straggled  over  most  parts  of  tlie  Roman 
empire,  and  now  kept  its  fatal  residence  at  Alexandria, 
where  by  an  impartial  severity  it  mowed  down  both 
Gentiles  and  Christians,  and  turned  the  paschal  solem- 
nity (it  being  then  the  time"^  of  Easter)  into  days  of 
weeping  and  mourning,  all  places  were  filled  with  dying 
groans,  and  sorrows  either  for  friends  already  dead,  or 
those  that  were  ready  to  depart,  it  being  now,  as  former- 
ly under  that  great  Egyptian  plague,  and  somerhiiig 
worse,  there  was  a  great  cry  i?i  Egypt ^  for  there  was  not 
an  house  where  there  was  not  only  one^  but  many  dead. 
In  this  sad  and  miserable  time  how  vastly  ditierent  was 
the  carriage  of  the  Christians  and  the  heathens.  I'he 
Christians  out  of  the  superabundance  of  their  kindness 
and  charity,  without  any  regard  to  their  own  health  and 
life,  boldly  ventured  into  the  ihickest  dangers,  daily  vi- 
siting, assisting,  and  ministering  to  their  sick  and  in- 
fected brethren,  cheerfully  taking  their  pains  and  distem- 
pers upon  them,  and  themselves  expiring  with  them. 
And  when  many  of  those  whom  they  thus  attended,  re- 
covered and  lived,  they  died  themselves,  as  if  by  a  pro- 
digious  and  unheard  of  charity,  they  had  willingly  taken 
their  diseases  upon  them,anddiedto  savethemfrom  death. 
And  these  the  most  considerable  both  of  clergy  and  peo- 
ple, cheerfully  embracing  a  death  that  deserved  a  title 
little  less  than  that  of  martyrdom.  They  embraced  the 
bodies  of  the  dead,  closed  their  eyes,  laid  them  out, 
washed  and  dressed  them  up  in  their  funeral  weeds,  took 
them  upon  their  shoulders,  and  carried  them  to  their 
graves,  it  not  being  long  before  others  did  the  same  of- 

b  Zos:ni    Kistiir.  1    I.   i>.  347.  c   Pomp.  Lact.  in  vit   Galli.p.  m.  1235, 

Eutrop.  H.  Rom  1.  9.  p.  1924.  d  Dioiiys.  ib.c.  22.  p.  268. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.     509 

fices  for  them.  The  gentiles  on  the  contrary  put  off  all 
sense  of  humanity,  when  any  began  to  fall  sick,  they  pre- 
scntly  cast  them  out,  ran  from  their  dearest  friends  and 
relations,  and  either  left  them  half  dead  in  the  highways, 
or  threw  them  out  as  soon  as  they  were  dead,  dreading 
to  fall  under  the  same  infection,  which  yet  with  all  their 
care  and  diligence  they  could  not  avoid. 

J  4.  Nor  were  these  the  only  troubles  the  good  man 
was  exercised  with,  he  had  contests  of  another  nature 
that  swallowed  up  his  time  and  care.  Sabellius,  a  Li- 
byan, born  at  Ptolemais,  a  city  of  Pentapolis,  had  lately 
started  *'  dangerous  notions  and  opinions  about  the  doc- 
trine of  the  holy  Trinity,  affirming  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  to  be  but  one  subsistence,  one  person  under 
three  several  names  which  in  the  time  ot  the  Old  Tes- 
lament  gave  the  law  under  the  notion  of  the  Father,  in 
the  New,  was  made  man  in  the  capacity  of  the  Son,  and 
descended  afterwards  upon  the  apostles  in  the  quality  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Dionysius,  as  became  a  vigilant  pastor 
of  his  flock,  presently  undertakes  the  man,  and  while  he 
managed  the  cause  with  too  much  eagerness  and  ferven- 
cy of  disputation,  he  bent  the  stick  too  much  the  other 
way,  asserting  not  only  tn^-^T^'ntra-j  i-^r^^^a-iu::;  ^a  distinc- 
tion of  persons,  but  kVwc  <r/«t=g*v,  a  difference  of  essence, 
and  an  inequality  of  power  and  glory.  For  which  he  is 
severely  censured  by  St.  Basil  and  some  of  the  ancients, 
as  one  of  those  that  mainly  opened  the  gap  to  those  Ari- 
an  impieties  that  after  broke  in  upon  the  world.  Though 
St.  Basil  ^  could  not  but  so  far  do  him  right,  as  to  say 
that  it  was  not  any  ill  meaning,  but  only  an  over-vehe- 
ment desire  to  oppose  his  adversary  that  betrayed  him 
into  those  unwary  and  inconsiderate  assertions.  Some 
bishops  of  Pentapolis,  immediately  took  hold  of  this,  and 
going  over  to  Rome  represented  his  dangerous  errors  ; 
where  the  case  was  discussed  in  a  synod,  and  letters 
written  to  Dionysius  about  it,  who  in  a  set  apolog}'  an- 
swered for  himself,  and  declared  his  sense  more  expli- 


e  Dion.  Epist.  ad  Sex.  ib.  c.  6.   p.  252.  Niceph.  1.  6.  c.  26.  p.  419. 
f"  Basil,  ad  Mag-n.  Fliilos.  Epist.    ZLI.  p.  60.  g' Ubi  supr. 


510  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

citly  in  this  controversy,  as  may  be  seen  at  large  in 
Athanasius,  ^  who  has  with  infinite  pains  vindicated  our 
Dion)  sius,  his  predecessor,  as  a  man  sound  and  ortho- 
dox, and  who  was  never  condemned  by  the  governors  of 
the  church  for  impious  opinions,  or  that  he  held  those 
aboHiinable  tenets  which  Arius  broached  afterwards.  And 
certai/'ly  St.  Basil  might  and  would  have  passed  a  milder 
censure,  had  he  either  perused  all  Dionysius's  writings, 
or  remembered  how  much  he  concerned  himself  to  clear 
St.  Gregory  of  Neocaesarea,  Dionysius's  contemporary, 
from  the  very  same  charge,  for  which  he  could  not  but 
confess  he  had  given  too  just  occasion. 

15.  No  sooner  was  this  controversy  a  little  over,  but 
he  was  engaged  in  another.  •  Nepos,  an  Egyptian  bishop 
lately  dead  (a  man  eminent  for  his  constancy  in  the  faith, 
his  industry  and  skill  in  the  holy  scriptures,  the  many 
psalms  and  hymns  he  had  composed,  which  the  breth- 
ren sung  in  their  public  meetings)  had  not  long  since 
fallen  into  the  error  of  the  Millenaries,  and  had  published 
books  to  show  that  the  promises  made  in  the  scriptures 
to  good  men,  were  'iK<f*(*(^s55v,  according  to  the  sense 
and  opinion  of  the  Jews  to  be  literally  understood, 
and  that  there  was  to  be  a  thousand  years  state  upon 
earth,  wherein  they  were  to  enjoy  sensual  pleasures  and 
delights.  Endeavouring  to  make  good  his  assertions 
from  some  passages  in  St.  John's  Revelation,  styling 
his  book  'h-Airx®-  dn^-^yoe^i^m,  A  Confutation  of  Allegorical 
Expositors.  This  book  was  greedily  caught  up  and 
read  by  many,  and  advanced  into  that  esteem  and  repu- 
tation, that  law  and  prophets,  and  the  writings  of  the 
evangelists  and  apostles  were  neglected  and  thrown  aside, 
and  the  doctrine  of  this  book  cried  up,  as  containing 
(Aiyi  rt  i,  KiKpu/jLfxivov  /uuTii^ioy,  souic  great  and  extraordinary 
mystery,  concealed  before  from  the  world :  the  more 
simple  and  unwary  being  taught  to  disband  all  sub- 
lime and  magnificent  thoughts  of  our  Lord's  glorious 
coming,  the  resurrection  and  final  judgment,   and  our 

h  De  Sentent.    Dionvs.tom.  1.  p.  548.  &c.  vid.  Pliot.  Cod.  CCXXXII. 
ro\.  901.  i  Euieb.  ibid.  c.  *4.  p.  270. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.  oil 

conformity  to  him  in  glory,  and  to  hope  for  a  state  in  the 
kingdom  of  God,  wherein  they  should  be  entertained 
with  such  little  and  trifling,   such  fading  and  transitory- 
things  as  this  world  does  afford.     Dionysius,  being  then 
in  the  province  of  the  Arsenoitae,  where  this  opinion  had 
prevailed  so  far  as  to  draw  whole  churches  into  schism 
and  separation,   summoned  the  presbyters  and  teachers, 
who  preached  in  the  country  villages,  and  as  many  of  the 
people  as  had  a  mind  to  come,  advising  them  that  in  their 
sermon:,   they   would   publicly   examine  this   doctrine. 
They    presently  defended  themselves  with  this  book, 
whereupon  he   began  more  closely  to  join   issue  with 
them,   continuing  with  them  three  days  together  from 
morning  to  night,  weighing  and  discussing  the  doctrines 
contained  in  it.     In  all  which  time  he  admired  their  con- 
stancy and  love  to  truth,  their  great  quickness  and  readi- 
ness of  understanding,  with  so  much  order  and  decency, 
so  much  modesty  and  moderation  were  the  discourses 
managed  on  both  sides,  doubts  propounded,  and  assent 
yielded.     For  they  took   an  especial  care  not  pertinaci- 
ously to  defend  their  former  opinions,   when  once  they 
found  them  to  be  erroneous,  nor  to  shun  any  objections 
which  on  either  part  were  made  against  them.     As  near 
as  might  be  they  kept  to  the  present  question,  which  they 
endeavoured  to  make  good  ;  but  if  convinced  by  argu- 
ment that  they  were  in  the  wrong,  made  no  scruple  to 
change  their  minds,  and  go  over  to  the  other  side,   with 
honest  minds,  and  sincere  intentions,  and  hearts  truly  de- 
voted to  God,  embracing  whatever  was  demonstrated  by 
the  holy  scriptures.     The  issue  was,  that  Coracion,  the 
commander  and  champion  of  the  other  party,  publicly 
promised  and  protested  before  them  all,   that  he  would 
not  henceforth  either  entertain,  or  dispute,  or  discourse, 
or  preach  these  opinions,  being  sufficiently  convinced  by 
the  arguments  which  the  other  side  had  offered  to  him: 
all  the  brethren  departing  with  mutual  love,  unanimity, 
and  satisfaction.     Such  was  the  peaceable  conclusion  of 
this  meeting,  and  less  could  not  be  expected  from  such 
pious  and  honest  souls,  such  wise  and  regular  disputers. 
And  happy  had  it  been  for  the  Christian  world,    had  all 


.512  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

those  controversies  that  have  disturbed  the  church,  been 
managed  by  such  prudent  and  orderly  debates,  which,  as 
usually  conducted,  rather  widen  the  breach,  than  heal  and 
mend  it.  Dionysius,  to  strike  the  controversy  dead,  while 
his  hand  was  in,  wrote  a  book  concerning  the  Promisesy 
(which  St.  Hierom,  forgetting  what  he  had  truly  said 
elsewhere  ^  that  it  was  written  against  Nepos,  tells  '  us 
was  written  against  Iren^us,  bishop  of  Lyons,  mistaking 
the  person  probably  for  his  opinion)  in  the  first  part 
whereof  he  stated  the  question,  laid  down  his  sense  con- 
cerning it :  in  the  second  he  treated  concerning  the  Re- 
velation of  St.  John  (the  main  pillar  and  buttress  of  this 
opinion)  where  both  by  reason  and  the  testimony  of 
others,  he  '"  contends  that  it  was  not  written  by  St.  John, 
the  apostle  and  evangelist,  but  by  another  of  that  name, 
an  account  of  whose  judgment  herein  we  have  represent- 
ed in  another  place. 

16.  The  last  controversy  wherein  he  was  concerned 
was  that  against  Paul  of  Samosata,  bishop  of  Antioch, 
who  had  "  confidently  vented  these  and  such  like  impious 
dogmata,  that  there  is  but  one  person  in  the  Godhead,  that 
our  blessed  Saviour  was,  though  a  holy,  yet  a  mere  man, 
Avhocame  not  down  from  heaven,  but  was  of  a  mere  earthly 
extract  and  original, in  whom  the  Word  ( which  he  made  not 
any  thing  distinct  from  the  Father)  did  sometimes  reside, 
and  sometimes  depart  from  him,  with  abundance  of  the 
like  wicked  and  senseless  propositions.  Besides  all  which 
he  was  infinitely  obnoxious  in  his  morals  (as  few  men 
but  serve  the  design  of  some  lust  by  schism  and  bad  opi- 
nions) covetous  without  any  bounds,  heaping  up  a  vast 
estate  (diough  born  a  poor  man's  son)  partly  by  fraud 
and  sacrilege,  partly  by  cruel  and  unjust  vexations  of  his 
brethren,  partly  by  fomenting  differences,  and  taking 
bribes  to  assist  the  weaker  party.  "  Proud  and  vainglo- 
rious he  was  beyond  all  measure,   affecting  pomp  and 

kDcscript.  in  Dionys.  1  Prsfut.  in  1.  18.  Com.  in  Esa.  p.  242.  T  5. 

m  Antiq.  Apost-  Life  of  St.  John,  n.  14.  n  Eusel).  vibi  supr.  c  27.  p. 
S77,  i;81.  Epi|)l!.H seres.  LXV.p.  252.  Atiinnas.  de  Synod.  Arim.&Sefcuc. 
p.  920.  Nicepli.  1.  6.  c.  27.  p.  420.  o  Ep:»t.  Synod.  11.  Antioch.  ap. 

Euscb.  ib.  c.  30.  p.  280.  &c. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.  513 

train,  and  secular  power,  and  rather  to  be  styled  a  tem- 
poral prince  than  a  bishop,  going  through  the  streets  and 
all  public  places  in  solemn  state  \vith  persons  walking 
before  him,  and  crowds  of  people  following  after  him.  In 
the  church  he  caused  to  be  erected  a  throne  higher  than 
ordinary,  and  a  place  which  he  called  Secretum,  after  the 
manner  of  civil  magistrates,  who,  in  the  inner  part  of  the 
pratorium,  had  a  place  railed  in,  with  curtains  hung  be- 
fore it,  where  they  sat  to  hear  causes.  He  was  wont  to 
clap  his  hand  upon  his  thigh,  and  to  stamp  with  his  feet 
upon  the  bench,  frowning  upon,  and  reproaching  those, 
who  did  not  theatrically  shout  and  make  a  noise  while  he 
was  discoursing  to  them,  wherein  he  used  also  to  reflect 
upon  his  predecessors  and  the  most  eminent  persons  that 
had  been  before  him,  with  all  imaginable  scorn  and  petu- 
lancy,  magnifying  himself  as  far  beyond  them.  I'he 
hymns  that  were  ordinarily  sung  in  honour  of  our  Lord, 
he  abolished  as  late  and  novel,  and  instead  thereof  taught 
some  of  his  proselyted  females,  upon  the  Easter  solem- 
nity to  chant  out  some  which  he  had  composed  in  his 
own  commendation,  to  the  horror  and  astonishment  of  all 
that  heard  them,  procuring  the  bishops  and  presbyters  of 
the  neighbouring  parts  to  publish  the  same  things  of  him 
in  their  sermons  to  the  people,  some  of  his  proselytes  not 
sticking  to  affirm,  that  he  was  an  angel  come  down  from 
heaven.  All  which  he  was  so  far  from  controlling,  that 
he  highly  encouraged  them,  and  heard  them  himself 
not  only  with  patience  but  delight.  He  was  more- 
over vehemently  suspected  of  incontinency,  maintaining 
{>v6;9-it')CTsc  yxiiMMu  suhintroduced  women  in  his  house,  and 
some  of  them  persons  of  exquisite  beauty,  contrary  to 
the  canons  of  the  church,  and  to  the  great  scandal  of  reli- 
gion. And  that  he  might  not  be  much  reproached  by 
those  that  were  about  him,  he  endeavoured  to  debauch 
his  clerg}',  conniving  at  their  vices  and  in^egularities,  and 
corrupting  others  with  pensions,  and  whom  he  could  not 
prevail  with  by  evil  arts,  he  awed  by  power,  and  his 
mighty  interest  in  the  princes  and  great  ones  of  those 
parts,  so  that  they  were  forced  with  sadness  to  bewail  at 
home  what  they  durst  not  publish  and  declare  abroad. 

5    T 


5J4  LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 

17.  To  rectify  these  enormities  most  of  the  chief  biv. 
shops  of  the  east  resolved  to  meet  in  a  synod  at  ^  Antioch, 
to  which  they  earnestly  invited  our  Dionysius.  But,  alas, 
age  and  infirmities  had  rendered  him  incapable  of  such 
a  journey,  and  had  given  him  a  writ  of  ease,  upon  which 
account  he  begged  to  be  excused  from  it.  But  that  he 
might  not  be  wanting  in  what  he  could,  he  sent  letters, 
wherein  he  declared  his  sense  and  opinion  of  those  mat- 
ters, and  in  his  epistle  to  the  church  of  Antioch,  to  show 
his  resentment  of  the  thing,  he  not  only  wrote  not  to  the 
man,  but  gave  him  not  so  much  as  the  civility  of  a  salu- 
tation. In  this  synod  the  crafty  fox  hid  his  head,  dissem- 
bling his  sentiments,  and  palliating  his  disorders,  and 
confessing  and  recanting  what  he  was  not  able  to  con- 
ceal,  so  that  for  the  present  he  still  continued  in  his  place. 
How  he  was  afterwards  discovered  and  laid  open,  con- 
victed, condemned,  and  deposed  in  another  synod  in  that 
city,  and  Domnus  substituted  in  his  room;  how  he  re- 
fused to  submit  to  the  sentence  of  the  council,  and  for 
some  time  maintained  his  station  by  the  power  of  Zeno- 
bia,  a  queen  in  those  parts,  and  a  Jewish  proselyte,  whose 
favour  he  had  courted  and  obtained;  and  how  at  last  upon 
the  bishops'  appeal  he  was  turned  out,  and  the  synodical 
decree  executed  by  the  immediate  order  of  the  emperor 
Valerian,  is  without  the  limits  of  my  business  to  inquire. 

18.  A  little  after  this  first  synod  at  Antioch  died  our 
St.  Denys  in  the  twelfth  year  of  ^^  Gallienus,  Ann. 
265,  when  he  had  sitten  seventeen  years  bishop  of 
Alexandria,  dying  probably  the  same  year  and  on  the 
same  day  with  St.  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  whose  me- 
mjDries  are  accordingly  celebrated  September  17,  in  the 
calendar  of  the  Roman  church.  His  memory  was  con- 
tinued at  Alexandria  (as  we  learn  from "  Epiphanius)  by 
a  church  dedicated  to  him,  but  flourished  much  more  in 
the  incomparable  virtues  of  his  past  life,  and  those  excel- 
lent writings  he  left  behind  him,  which  mainly  consisted 
of  vast  numbers  of  epistles;  and  it  is  probable  all  his 

p  Euseb.  ib.  c,  27.  p.  277.  &  c.  30.  p.  279.  q  Vld.  ib.  c.  28.  p,  278 

r  Hjcies.  LXIX .  p.  "11. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS.    515 

writings  were  nothing  else,  his  larger  tracts  being  \vriU 
ten  in  the  nature  of  epistles.  Which,  were  they  still  ex- 
tant, instead  of  those  little  fragments  preserved  by  Kuse* 
bius,  besides  other  advantages,  they  would  probably  fur- 
nish us  with  the  most  material  transactions  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  in  those  times,  than  which  in  tho-^e  early  ages 
there  was  not  a  more  active  and  busy  period  of  the  church. 


HIS   WRITINGS, 


Whereof  some  fragments  only  are  now  extant. 


Liber  de  Pcenitentia  ad  Cono- 
nem  Episcopum  Hermapo- 
litanum. 

Libellus  de  Mart}T-io  ad  Ori- 
ginem. 

De  Promissionibus  adversus 
Nepotem  Libri  IL 

Ad  Dionisium  Romanum  ad- 
versus Sabellium,  Libri  IV. 

Ad  Timotheum  Libri  de  Na- 
tura. 

DeTentationibus  Liber  ad  Eu- 
phran. 

Commentarius  in  primam  par- 
tem Ecclesiastis. 

Epistola  ad  Corneliuni  Epis- 
copum Romanum. 

Epistola  ad  Stcphanum  Epis- 
cop.  Rom.  de  Baptismo. 

Ad  Sixtum  Papam  de  Baptis- 
rr.o  Epistolte  lil. 

Adversus  Germanum  Episc. 
Epistola. 

Epistola  ad  Fabium  Antlochiae 
Eplsc. 

Epistola  ad  Novatianum  de 
Schlsmate. 

Epistola  de  Pcenitentia  ad  Fra- 
tres  per  iEgyptum  constitu- 
tes. 


Ad  gregem  suum  Alexandri« 
num  Epistola  objurgatoria. 

Epistola  ad  Laodlcenos. 

Epistola  ad  Arnienios  de  Pce- 
nitentia. 

Epistola  ad  Romanos   <rwx.3v/vw. 

Alia  ad  eosdem  de  Pace  tf 
Pcsnitent. 

Ad  Confessores  Novatianos 
Romse  EpistolcC  III. 

Ad  Phllemonem  Presb^-terum 
Romanum  de  Baptismo. 

Epistola  Itidem  ad  Dionysiam 
Presbyternum  Rom.  de  Bap- 
tismo. 

Epistola  suo  &  Eccleslae  suae 
nomine  ad  Sixtum  &  P^ccl. 
Rom.  de  eadem  re. 

Ad  Dlon)sium  Romanum  de 
Luciano  Epistola. 

Epistola  ad  Hermammoncm. 

Epistola  ad  Domitium  &  Dy- 
dymum. 

Epistola  ad  Com.presliyteros 
Alexand. 

Epistola  ad  Hieracem  Eplsc. 
^gyptlac. 

Epistola  de  Sabbato. 

Epistola  de  Mortailtate. 

De  Exercltatione  Epistola. 


516     LIFE  OF  ST.  DIONYSIUS  ALEXANDRINUS. 


Epistola  ad  Ammonem  Ber- 
Ijenicensem  Episcopura,  con- 
tra Sabellium. 

Alia  ad  Telesphorum. 

Ad  Euphranorem  alia. 

Ad  Ammonem  &  Euporum 
Epistola. 

Ad  BasilidemEpiscopum  Pen- 
tapolit. 

Epistolae  plures.  Ex  his  super- 
est  Epistola  Canonica  de 
diversis  Capitibus.  Extat 
Gr.  L.  Tom.  1.  Concil.  & 
alibi  cum  Commentario  Bal- 
samonis. 


Epistolae  'Eo^TdL^un),  seu  Pascha- 

les  piurimas. 
Epistola  ad  Ecclesiam    Anti- 

ochenam  adversus    Paulum 

Samosatenum. 

Doubtful,  or  rather  Suppositi- 
tious. 

Epistola  ad  Paulum  Samosa- 
tenum Gr.  L.  Concil.  Tom. 
1. 

Responsiones  ad  Pauli  Samo- 
teni  decern  Qutestiones, 
Gr.  L.  ibid. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


OF  THE 


THREE  FIRST  AGES 


OF  THE 


CHRISTIAX  CHURCH 


PHILADELPHL\ : 

PUBLISHED   BY   SOLOJION  WIATT,  N'O.  104,  N'OUTH 

SECOND    STRf:ET. 

SWEENY  Sc  M'KENZIE,  PRINTERS. 

1811. 


1-.^ 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Anu.  : 
Chr.  ; 

RoiDuii 
emperors. 

Consuls. 

Ecclesiastical  Affairi. 

1 

Augusti. 

43 

C.  Julius  Caesar  Vipsania- 

nus. 
L.  x^mil.  Paulus, 

Our  Lord's  circumcision  : 
His  being  presented  in  the 
temple.  His  flight  into  Egypt; 

The  massacre  of  the  infants 
ai  Bethlehem. 

The  death  of  Herod  about 
the  time  of  the  passover. 

2 

44 

P.  \  inicras  JNepOb. 
P.  Alphinius  Varus. 

Archelaus  declared  Te- 
trarch  of  Judxa. 

3 

45 

L.  iElius  Lamia. 

L.  Servilius  Geminus, 

In  the  beginning  of  this  (or 
rather  the  end  of  the  foregoing 
year)  our  Lord  retui-ned  out  of 
Egypt. 

His  education  and  abode  at 
Nazareth. 

4 

46 

Sex.  ^^lius  Catws. 
C  Sentius  Saturninus. 

Augustus  refuses  the  title  of 
Lord, 

5 

47 

L.  Valerius  Messala. 
Cn.  Cornelius  Cinna. 

Great  earthquakes  hap- 
pened. 

Tiber  overflows. 

An  eclipse  of  the  sun,  March 
28. 

6 

48 

M.  iEmil.  Lepidus. 
L.  Arruntius  Nepos. 

About  this  time  the  Jews 
and  Samaritans  accused  Ar- 
chelaus to  Augustus,  who  ban- 
ished him  to  Vein  in  France. 

7 

49 

A.  Liiciiuus  iServa. 

Q.  Cec.  Metellus  Creticus. 

8 

50 

M.  Funub  Camiilus. 
S.  Nonius  Quinctilianus. 

9 

51 

Q.  Sulp.  Camerinus. 
C.  Poppteus  Sabinus. 

10 

52 

P.  Corn.  Dolabella. 
C.  Junius  Salanus. 

11 

53 

M.  iSlmil.  Lepidus. 
T.  Statilius  Taurus. 

rhe  Jews  taxed  by  Quiri- 
nus  the  Roman  governor.  In 
those  days  rose  up  Judas  of 
Galilee,  and  drew  away  much 
people  after  him.  He  is  slain, 
and  his  two  sons  crucified. 

Our  Lord  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  born  Dece7nberXXV,  six 
days  before  the  commencement  of  the  common  jEra.  Ann.  Augusti  Imp. 
XLII.     For  though  in  strictness  the  XLIL  year  ©f  August,  ended  JVov. 


4^20 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE. 


Ann.    I      Roman 
Chr.     I    empevovs. 


Consuls. 


Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 


54 


T.  Germanicus  Cxsar. 
C.  Fonteius  Capito. 


By  occasion  of  the  pass- 
over  our  Lord  goes  up  with 
his  parents  to  Jerusalem, 
and  there  disputes  with  the 
rabins  in  the  temple^ 


55 


C.  Silius  Nepos. 

L.  Munacius  Plancus. 


Augustus  solemnly  makes 
his  will,  and  lays  it  up  with 
the  vestal  virgins. 


56 
Tibe-  T 
I'ius  ab  L 

J 


Aug. 
19. 


Sex.  Pompeius  Nepos. 
Sex.  Apuleius  Nepos. 


Augustus  dies,  and  is  in- 
terred with  great  funeral 
honours.  Serv.  Numei'ius 
affirms  upon  his  oath,  that 
he  saw  him  ascend  into  hea- 


Di'usus  J.  Cxsai". 

C.  Norbanus  Flaccus. 


T.  Statii.  Sesenna. 
L.  Scribonius  lAho. 


riie  magicians  and  ma- 
thematicians banished  Rome 
bv  Tiberius. 


C  Cxiiuo  Rutus. 

L.  Pomponius  Flaccus. 


CI.  Tib.  Nero  III. 

D.  German.  Casar  II. 


M.  Junius  Silanus. 
L.  Norbanus  Balbus. 


Josephus  called  Caiaphas 
made  high  priest  of  the  Jews 
by  the  favour  of  Valerius 
Gratus  the  Roman  governor. 


L.  Valerius  Messala. 
M.  Aurelius  Cotta. 


CI.  Tib.  Nero  IV. 
Drusus  J.  Caisar  II. 


C.  Sulpicius  Galba. 

D.  Haterius  Agrippa. 


C.  Asinius  Pollio. 
C.  Antistius  Vetus. 


Sex.  Cornel.  Cethegus. 
L.  Vitellius  Varro. 


11 


12 


Cossus  Cornel.  Lentulus. 
M.  Asinius  Agrippa. 


Towards  the  end  of  this 
year  Pontius  Pilate  is  sent  to 
be  procurator  of  Judea. 


12 


13 


Cn.    Cornel.    Lentulus. 
Gaet. 

C.  Calvisius  Sabinus. 


Pilate  commands  the  Ro- 
man standards  with  the 
image  of  Tiberiusupon  them 
to  be  brought  into  the  tem- 
ple to  the  great  offence  of 
the  Jews. 


XXVII.  (accounting  his  reign  from  his  entering  upon  the  Triumvirate) 
yet  seeing  the  civil  Roman  year  expired  not  till  the  last  of  Dccemb.  it 
may  be  said  to  extend  all  that  time.  His  XLIII.  year  in  common  reckon- 
ing, and  the  first  year  of  tlie  vulgar  JEra  of  our  Lord  commencing  Jan.  1. 
when  the  Romans  bega-n  their  year  and  the  new  consuls  took  place. 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


521 


Ann.    1        Roman         1                       „         i                           1                », „.  . 

Chr.     1     e.up.rmi.       |                         Consuls.                          |                Eoeksiustical  Affairs. 

27 

13 
14 

M.  Licinius  Crassus, 
L.  Calphurnius  Piso. 

Herod  Antipas  ijuttinij 
away  the  daughter  of  Aretas 
king  of  Arabia,  marries  He- 
rodias,  his  brother  Philip's 
wife. 

28 

14 
1.5 

Ap.  Junius  Silaiuiii. 
P.  Silius  Nerva. 

Joseph  our  Lord's  reputed 
father  is  by  some  said  to  de- 
cease this  year. 

29 

15 

16 

C.  Rubellius ")  ^      .  . 
C.Fusius      JGemm,. 

John  the  Baptist  begins  to 
preach  and  baptize,  (proba- 
bly) about  mid-summer,  or 
as  B.  LTsher  thinks,  Oct.  19. 

30 

16 
17 

C.  Cassius  Longinus. 
M.  Vinucius  Quaninus. 

Our  Lord  baptized  Jan.  6. 
having  completed  the  29th 
year  of  his  age,  and  13  days. 

His  first  passover  April  6. 

31 

17 

18 

Tiber.  Nero  Cxsar,  V. 
L,  .^lius  Sejanus. 

His  second  passover, 
March  28.  His  cure  of  the 
paralytic  at  the  pool  oi 
Bethesda.  His  sending  out 
the  12  apostles. 

John  the  Baptist  behead- 
ed. 

32 

18 
19 

Cn.    Domitius  iEnobar- 

bus. 
A.  Vitellius  Nepos. 
Sji^.   M.  Fur,    Camill9 

Scrib. 

The  third  passover,  April 
14.     400G  fed  with  7  loaves. 

Christ's      transfiguration 

The  LXX.  disciples  sent 
out.  Zachxus  converted. 
Bartimxus  cured  of  his 
blindness. 

33 

19 

20 

Ser.  Sulpit.  Galba. 
L.  Cornelius  SyUa. 

Lazarus  raised.  Our 
Lord's  triumphant  entry  in- 
to Jerusalem.  The  Lord's 
supper  instituted.  The 
fourth  passover.  Our  Lord 
apprehended,  arraigned, 
crucified  April  3,  rises  again 
and  ascends  into  heaven. 

Tiie  7  deacons  chosen. 
St.  Stephen  stoned,  Dec.  25. 

34 

20 
21 

P.  Fabius  Persicus. 
L.  Vitellius  Nepos. 

The  persecution  follow- 
ing St.  Stejihen's  death. 

St.  Philip's  preaching  at 
Samaria.  His  converting 
and  baptizing  tlie  Eunuch. 

Peter  and  John  return  to 
Jerusalem. 

3  u 


s^ 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ami, 
Chr 

Roman 
emperors. 

Cousuls. 

Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

55 

Tiber,  21 
23 

C.  Cestius  GaUus    Ca- 
merinus, 

M.  Servilius  Rufus. 

St.  Paul  converted,  Jan, 
25. 

St.  Peter  visits  the 
churches. 

Jonathan  the  son  of  Annas 
made  high  priest.  Many 
favours  conferred  upon  the 
Jews  by  Vitellius. 

36 

22 
23 

Q.  Plautius  Plautianus, 

al.  Lpehanus. 
Sex.  Papinius  Gallienus. 

1      Peter's  vision. 

Cornelius's  conversion. 

Peter  accused  for  his  con- 
verse with  the  Gentiles  at 
his  return  to  Jerusalem. 

57 

23 
24 

Caligula  -i 
a  Mart.    J-l 
16.           J 

Cn.  AcerroniusPrpculus. 
C.  Pontius  Nigrinus. 

St.  Paul  comes  to  Jerusa- 
lem, and  after  15  days  is  by 
revelation  commanded  to 
depart  thence.  He  goes  for 
Tarsus. 

38 

1 

2 

C.  Cxsar  Caligula.  II. 
L.  Apronius  Cscsianus. 

A  cruel  persecution  raised 
against  the  Jews  at  Alexan- 
dria, by  Flaccus  the  prefect 
of  Egypt. 

39 

2 
S 

M.  Aquilius  Julianus. 
P.  Nonius  Asprenas. 

Pontius  Pilate  lays  violent 
hands  upon  himself. 

The  great  increase  of  the 
church  of  Antioch.  The  be- 
lievers first  called  Christians 
there. 

40 

3 

4 

C.  Cxsar  Calieula  III. 
Siif.  h.  GelliusPub- 
licola. 

M.  Cocceius  Nerva. 

Caligula  commands  Pe- 
tronius  to  set  up  his  statue 
in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  : 
but  at  the  great  instance  of 
the  Jews  it  is  deferred. 

41 

4 
Claudius  T 
a  1  Feb.  J 

C.  Cxsar  Caligula  IV. 
iwj^."  Q.  Pompon.  Secun- 

dus. 
Cn.  Senlius  Saturninus. 

St.  James  the  great,  the 
apostle,  beheaded  by  the 
command  of  Herod.  Peter 
delivered  out  of  prison. 

42 

1 

o 

Tib.  Claudius  Imp.  II. 
C.  Licinius  Cxcina  Lar- 

Barnabas  and  Paul  set 
forward  in  their  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  Tliey  plant 
the  Christian  faith  in  Se- 
leucia,  Cyprus,  and  other 
places. 

43 

2 
3 

T.  Claudivis  Imp.  III. 
L.  Vitellius  II, 

Claudius  abrogates  many 
of  the  Roman  festivals. 

Elion  is  made  high  priest 
of  the  Jews  in  the  room  of 
Matthias  the  son  of  Ananua 
deposed. 

fV"   f 

•    „                                   .... 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


S^ 


\iit>(  1       Roman 
tlir.    i      emperors. 

Consuls.                          j                 Ecclesiastical  Affuirs, 

Ciaudii  3 
/        44 

4 

L.  Q.  Crispinus  11. 
T.  Statilius  Taurus. 

Herod  dies,   being  imme- 
diately struck  by   an  angel 
for  his  pride  and  ambition. 

45 

4 
5 

M.  Vicinius  Quartinus. 
M.  Statilius  Corvinus. 

The  blessed  virgm  said  by 
some  to  die  this  year,  by- 
others  three  years  after. 

The  apostles  disperse 
themselves  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  several  pro- 
vinces of  the  Gentile  worldi 

46 

5 

6 

C.  Valerius  Asiaticus. 
M.  Valerius  Messala. 

Paul  and  Barnabas  preach, 
at    Lystra  :     Paul    stoned 
there.     Their  return  to  An- 

tioch. 

47 

6 
7 

T.  Claudius  Imp.  IV. 
L.  Vitellius  III. 

30,000  of  the  Jews,  raising 
a  tumult  in  the  feast  o.*"  un- 
leavened   bread,    slain    by 
Ventidius  Cumanus,  procu- 
rator of  Judea. 

48 

1 

8 

A.  Vitellius  postea  Imp. 
L.  Vipsanius  Poplicola. 

A  council  holden  by  the 
apostles  and  others  at  Jeru- 
salem, to  determine  the  con- 
troversy   about  legal  rites. 
The  decrees  of  the  synod 
sent  to  the  churches. 

49 

8 
9 

Cn.  Pompeius  Gallus. 
Q.Verannius  Lsetus. 

Barnabas  preaches  the 
gospel  in  Cyprus  :  St.  Paul 
in  Syria,  Cilicia,  &c. 

The  Jews  banished  Rome 
by  the  edict  of  Claudius. 

50 

9 
10 

C.  Antistius  Vetus. 

M.  SuilliQ  Rufus  Nervi- 
lian9. 

St.  Paul  having  travelled 
through  Macedonia,  comes 
to  Athens,  disputes  with  the 
philosophers,  converts  Dio- 
nysius  the  Areopagite,  and 
thence  passeth   to  Corinth, 
where  he  resides  18  months. 

51 

10 
11 

T.  Claudius  Imp.  V. 
Ser.  Col'neliUs  Orfilus. 

St.  Paul  continues  at  Co- 
rinth, where  he  meets  with 
Aquila    and    Priscilla     not 
long  before  banished  Rome 
by  the  decree  of  Claudius. 
Hence    he    writes    to   the 
Thessalonians. 

52 

11 

12 

P.  Cornelius  Sylla  Faus- 

tus. 
L.  Salvius  Otho  Titian- 

us. 

St.  Paul  departs  t'rom  vJu- 
rinth,    passes  to    Ephesus, 
thence  to  Jerusalem,  and  re- 
turns back  to  Ephesus. 

524 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Claudii 


12 
IS 


Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 


D.  Junius  Silanus. 

Q.  Haterius  Antoninus. 


He  preaches  and  disputes 
daily  in  the  school  of  Tyran- 
nus,  convinces  the  Jews,  and 
converts  great  numbers  to 
the  faith. 


54 


Nei-o  a"\ 
13  Oct.J 


M.  Asinius  Marcellus. 
M.  Acilius  Aviela. 


St.  Paul  fights  with  beasts, 
i.  e.  men  of  evil  and  brutish 
manners  at  Ephesus.  He 
preaches  there  still,  and  in 
the  parts  thereabouts. 


55 


Nero  Claudius  Imp. 
L.  Antistius  Vetus. 


St.  Paul's  dejjarture  from 
Ephesus.  He        passes 

through  Macedonia  and 
Greece,  and  gathers  con- 
tribution for  the  saints  of 
Jerusalem. 


56 


Q.  Volusius  Saturninus. 


P.  Cornelius  Scipio. 


St.  Paul  comes  to  Jerusa- 
lem, and  is  apprehended  in 
the  temple,  and  secured  in 
the  castle.  His  imprison- 
ment at  Cxsarea,  and  ar- 
raignment before  Felix  the 
Roman  governor. 


57 


Nero  Claud.  Imp.  II. 
L.  Calpurnius  Piso. 


St.  Paul  kept  prisoner  at 
Csesarea  under  Felix. 


58 


Nero  CI.  Imp.  III. 
M.  Valerius  Messala. 


St.  Paul's  arrignment  be- 
fore Festus.  He  is  sent  to 
Rome,  where  he  arrives 
about  the  end  of  this,  or  the 
beginning  of  the  following 
vear.* 


59 


C.  Vipsaiiius  Pnplicola. 

a/.  Apninianus. 
C.  Fonteius  Capito. 


St.  Paul's  free  imprison- 
ment at  Rome.  He  v rites 
his  epistles  to  the  Ephesians, 
Colossia'ns,  Philippians,  to 
Timothv  and  Philemon. 


About  the  latter  end  of 
this  year  St.  Paul  is  set  at 
liberty,  and  before  his  de- 
parture out  of  Italy,  writes 
his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 


60 


Nero  CI.  Imp.  IV. 
Cossus  Cornelius  Lentu- 
lus. 


*  The  time  of  St.  Paul's  being  sent  to  Rome,  depends  upon  Festus's 
(■oming  into  Judea  to  succeed  in  the  room  of  Felix  :  which  though  it  can- 
not be  precisely  determined,  yet  plain  it  is,  that  it  must  be  while  Pallas 
(Felix's  brother,  by  whose  mediation  with  the  emperor,  Felix  at  his  re- 
turn had  his  life  spared  when  accused  by  the  Jews  for  his  mal-adminis- 
tration)  was  yet  in  some  favour  with  Nero,  wherein  he  was  declining 
Kome  time  before,  and  from  which  he  seems  whrily  to  have  fallen  upon 
Agf'i>pina's  death  (upon  whose  interest  he  stood  at  court)  who  was  slain 
Ncron.  V.  ./«;/.  C7ir.  LIX.  Pallas  himself  being  poisoned,  Neron.  VIII. 
ylmi.  LXII. 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


525 


Ann.    I       Roman 
Clir.    1      emperor. 


Consuls. 


Neronis  7. 


61 


62 


C.  Csesonius  Pjetus. 


C.  Petronius  Turpilianus 
al.  Sabinus. 


8  I  P.  Marius  Celsus. 
1  L.  Asimub  Gallus. 
Siiff-  Seneca  &  Trebel- 
lius. 


Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 


St.  Paul  now  released, 
travels  for  the  propagation 
of  the  gospel  especially  in 
the  western  parts,  V/t'i  to  tig- 
fxa,  4  Ai/Vtac  iK^m,  Clem.  Rom. 
Ep.  ad  Corinth,  p.  8.  proba- 
bly into  Spain,  or  Britain. 


St.  James  the  less,  the 
brother  of  our  Lord  and  bi- 
shop of  Jerusalem,  thrown 
by  the  Jews  from  the  Tem- 
ple, and  knocked  on  the 
head  with  a  fuller's  club. 


63 


10 


L.  Memmius  Kegulus. 
Paulas  Virginias  Rufus. 


Simeon  chosen  by  St. 
James  his  successor  in  the 
see  of  Jerusalem. 

Anianus  succeeds  St.  Mark 
in  the  bishopric  of  Alexan- 
dria. Euseb.  Chron. 


64 


10 


11 


C.  Lecanius  Bassus. 

M.  Licinius  Crassus 
Frugi. 


Nero  burns  the  city  of 
Rome,  and  to  wipe  off  the 
odium  from  himself,  char- 
ges it  upon  the  Christians, 
and  raises  the  first  persecu- 
tion against  them  under  that 
pretext. 


65 


11 


12 


P.  Silius  Nerva. 

C.  Julius  Atticus  Vesti- 

nus. 
Suff.  Anicius  Cerealis. 


*  St.  Peter  and  Paul  suf- 
fer martyrdom  at  Rome. 

Several  prodigies  at  Jeru- 
salem foreshow  the  distruc- 
tion  of  that  church  and  state 


66 


12 


13 


C.  Suetonius  Paulinus. 


L.  Pontius  Telesinus. 


Nero  residing  in  Achaia, 
commits  the  management 
of  the  war  against  the  Jews 
to  Vespasian. 


er 


L.  Fonteius  Capito. 
C.  Julius  Rufus. 


Vespasian  carries  on  the 
war  with  great  diligence 
and  success. 

Josephus  is  taken  priso- 
ner. 


68 


Galba  a  T 
Jun.  10.  J 


C.  Silius  ItalicHs. 
M.  Galerius  Trachalus 
Turpilianus. 


Phanassus  the  son  of  Sa- 
muel the  last  High  Priest  of . 
the  Jews. 


*  Some  of  the  most  learned  Chronologists  of  the  Roman  church  place 
the  martyrdom  of  these  two  great  Apostles  two  years  later,  viz.  Ann.  Chr. 
LXVII.  which  if  any  like  better,  I  will  not  contend,  the  persecution  pro- 
bably extending  to  the  last  of  Nero,  though  it  seems  most  probable  that 
they  should  suffer  about  the  beginning  of  it. 


626 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

I?- 


Aiin. 
Chr. 


Roman 

emperor. 


Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 


69 

Othoa    ^ 
Jan.  15.   3 
Vitellius  "1 
ab  April    ?■ 
20.              J 
Vespasi-  -i 
an9  a  1    J-I 
Julii.        J 

Ser.  Sulpitius  Galba 

Imp.  II. 
T.  Vinius  Rufiuus.  al. 

Crispinianus. 

Vespasian  being  proclaim- 
ed emperor,  leaves  Judea, 
goes    to    Alexandria,     and 
thence  for  Rome. 

70 

1 

2 

Fl.  Vespasianus  Imp.  II. 
T.  Vespasianus  Cxsar. 

Titus  remanded  by  Ves- 
pasian to  prosecute  the  Jew- 
,  ish  war. 

Jerusalem  besieged,  taken, 
sacked,  and  burnt. 

1100000  of  the  Jews  pe- 
rish, 97" 000  taken  prisoners. 

71 

2 
3 

Imp.  Vespasianus  III. 

M.  Cocceius  Nerva, 
postea  Imper. 

The  Jewish  nobility,  and 
the  spoils  of  the  temple  car- 
ried in  triumph  to  Rome. 

St.  Bartholomew  the  A- 
postle  said  to  be  martyred 
this,  by  others,  the  following 
year. 

72 

3 

4 

Imp.  Vespasianus  IV. 
T.  Vespasianus  Cxsar  II. 

Ebion,  so  called  from  an 
affected   poverty,    born    at 
Cocaba  a  village  in  Basani- 
tis,  and  Cerinthus  noted  he- 
retics, begin  more  openly  to 
show  themselves  about  this 
time. 

73 

4 
5 

f  1.  Domitianus. 

M.  Valerius  Messalinus. 

St.  Thomas  slain  at  Mali- 
apor  in  India. 

St.  Martialis  at  Ravenna 
in  Italy. 

74 

5 
6 

Imp.  Vespasianus  V. 
T.  Vespasianus  III. 

The  last  census  made  at 
Rome :    several  very   aged 
persons  then    noted,    men- 
tioned by  Pliny,  lib.  7.  c,  49. 
Justifying  the  great  age  of 
several  Ecclesiastic  persons 
of  those  times. 

75 

6 

Imp.  Vespasianus  VI. 
Tit.  Vespasianus  IV^. 
Suff.  Domitianus  IV. 

The  Temple  of  Peace  de- 
dicated   by  V'espasian,  and 
the  Jewish  spoils  laid  up  in  it. 

76 

7- 
8 

Imp.  Vespasianus  VII. 
Tit.  Vespasianus  V. 
Suff".  Domitianus  V. 

77 

8 
9 

Imp.  Vespasianus  VIII. 
Tit.  Vespasianus  VI. 
Siiff]  Domitianus  VI. 

-..J. 

Linus  bishop  of  tlie  church 
of  the  Gentile  Christians  at 
Rome    suffers    martyrdom, 
having   sat   12  years,   four 
months,  and    twelve   days  : 
though  others   allow  but  11 
years,    2    months,  and    23 
davs. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


52f 


AuiC 

Chr. 

emp^H.     !                        Consuls.                       |                 Ecclesiastical  Affain. 

78 

Vespasiani  9 
10 

L.  Ceionius  Commodus 

Venis. 
C.  Cornelius  Priscus. 

Antipas  a  faithtul  martyr 
slain  at  Pergamus.  Onuphr. 
by  others  referred  to  Ann 
93. 

79 

10 
Titus  a  -1 

June  24.  J 

Imp.  Vespasianus  IX. 
Tit.  Vespasianus  VII. 

A  great  eruption  of  Vesu- 
vius: in  the  over-curious 
search  whereof  Pliny  the 
elder  perished  the  following 
vear. 

80 

1 

2 

I'itus  Vespas,  Imp.  VIll. 
Fl  Domitianus  VII. 

Titus  commands  Jose- 
phus's  history  of  the  Jewish 
war  to  be  laid  up  in  the  li- 
bi-arv  at  Rome. 

81 

2 
3 
Domit.  a-j 

>1 
Sep.  13.   J 

i\i.  Piautius  bylvanus. 
M.  Aniiius  Verus  PoUio. 

82 

1 

9 

Domitianus  Imp.  VIII. 
T.  Fla^  ins  Sabinus. 

83 

2 
3 

Imp.  Domitianus  IX. 
T.  Virginias  Rufus.  II. 

Domitian  banishes  the 
philosophers  out  of  Rome 
and  Italy,  and  severely  pun- 
ishes the  incest  of  the  Vestal 
virgins. 

84 

3 

4 

Imp.  Domiucti)u.>  X. 
Ap.  Junius  Sabinus. 

85 

4 
5 

Imp.  Domitianus  XI. 
T.  Aurelius  Fulvus. 

Anianus  bt.  Mark's  suc- 
cessor in  the  bishopric  of  Al- 
exandria, dies  and  is  suc- 
ceeded by  Avilius,  - 

86 

5 

6 

Imp.  Domitianus  XII. 
Ser.  Cornelius  Dolabella. 

87 

6 
7 

Imp,  Domitianus  XIII. 
A.  Volusius  Saturninus. 

Domitian  assumes  divine 
honours,  commanding  him- 
self to  be  stvled  Lord  and 

Grid. 

88 

7 
8 

Imp.  Domitianus  XIV. 
M.  Minucius  Rufus. 

89 

8 
9 

T.  Aurelius  Fuh  ius. 
A.  Sempronius  Atrati- 
nus. 

Philosophers  and  Mathe- 
maticians again  banished 
out  of  Rome. 

90 

9 
10 

Imp.  Domitianus  XV, 
M.  Cocceius  Nerva  II. 

ApoUonius  Tyansus  the 
famous  magician,  set  up  by 
the  Gentiles  as  rival  to  our 
Saviour,  is  brought  before 
Domitian,  shows  tricks  of 
magic,  and  is  said  immedi- 
ately to  vanish  out  of  his 
sight. 

The  second  persecution. 

S2B 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann.    I      Roman 
Chr.    j    emperors. 


91 


92 


93 


Consuls. 


Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 


Domit.lO     M.  Ulpius  Trajanus. 
11     M.  Acilius  Glabrio. 


11 


12 


Imp,  Domitianus  XVI. 


A.Volusius  Saturninus  II 


*  Cletus  bishop  of  Rome 
martyred  this  (if  not  rather 
the  foregoing)  year,  April 
26,  he  is  succeeded  by  Cle- 
mens,  May  16. 


About  this  time  St.  John  is 
supposed  to  be  sent  by  the 
Proconsul  of  Asia  to  Rome, 
and  by  Domitian  to  have 
been  put  into  a  vessel  of  hot 
oil,  and  then  banished  into 
Patmos. 


Sex.  Pompeius  Collega. 
Cornelius  Priscus. 


94 


95 


14 


14 


L.  Nonius  Asprenas 
Torquatus. 

M.  Arricinius  Clemens. 


Imp.  Domitianus  XVII. 


St.  John  writes  his  Book  of 
Revelations. 

Josephus  finishes  his  books 
of  Jewish  Antiquities. 


15  i  T.  Flavins  Clemens 
Mart. 


96 


97 


Nerva  a " 
13.  Sept.  . 


Fl.  CleuiCiis,  JJomitiau  s 
cousin-german  and  consul 
with  him  this  year,  put  to 
i  death  for  being  a  christian. 
His  wife  Fl.  Domitilla,  Do- 
mitian's  niece,  banished  for 
the  same  cause. 


C.  Fulvius  Valens, 

C.  Antistius  Vetus 

Coc.  Nerva  Imp.  III. 
T.  Virginius  Rufus  III. 
Suff".  C.  Cornelius  Taci- 
tus, historicus. 


Nerva  revoking  the  acts 
of  Domitian,  St.  John  is  re- 
leased of  his  banishment,  and 
returns  to  Ephesus. 


St.  John  (this  year  proba- 
bably  after  solemn  prepara- 
tion writes  his  gospel  at  the 
earnest  request  of  the  Asian 
Churches. 


98 


Trajan,  -» 
a  Jan.  27  J 


99 


Imp.  Nerva  IV. 


M.  Ulpius  Trajanus  II. 


Avilus  dying,  Cerdo  suc- 
ceeds in  the  see  of  Alexan- 
dria. 

St.  Clemens  bishop  of 
Rome  is  banished,  and  con- 
demned to  the  marble  quar- 
ries in  .the  Taurica  Cherso- 


C.  Sosius  Senecio  11. 
A.  Cornelius  Palnia. 


*  This  Cletus  is  by  the  Greeks,  and  that  with  greatest  probability, 
made  the  same  with  Anacletus,  which  breeds  a  great  difference  in  their 
account  of  years.  But  because  the  account  of  the  Greeks  is  not  so  clear 
and  smooth,  we  have  chosen,  in  assigning  the  times  of  the  Bishops  ot 
Rome,  to  follow  the  Avriters  of  that  church. 


A  CHRONOI.OGICAL  TABLE. 


529 


Ann. 
Chr. 

1    '    Uuniati 
'     fliipiroii. 

1                        Consuls. 

1                Ecckiiattical  Affain. 

100 

Triywii.     2 
3 

Imp.  Trajanus  III. 

M.  Cornelius  Fronto  III. 
Siijff".  Plinius  Junior. 

St.  John  dies,  and  is  bull- 
ed at  Ephesus. 

St.  Clemens  of  Rome  is 
thrown  into  the  sea,  with  an 
anchor  tied  about  his  neck» 
November  9,  having  been 
sole  bishop  of  Rome  9  years, 
11  months  and  12  days. 

101 

3 
4 

Imp.  Trajanus  IV. 
Sex.  Articuleius  Paetus. 

Anacletus  (according  to  the 
computation  of  the  church 
of  Rome)  succeeds  in  that 
see,  April  3. 

102 

4 
5 

C.  Sosius  Senecio  111, 
L.  Licinius  Sura. 

103 

5 
6 

Imp.  Trajanus  V. 
L.  Appius  Maximus. 

Exai,  a    false    prophet, 
author  of  a  new  sect,  arises. 
Epiph.  Haeres.  19. 

104 

6 

7 

L.  Licinius  Sura  II. 
P.  Neratiiis  Marcellus. 

105 

7 
S 

T.  Julius  Candidus. 
A.  Julius  Quadr  atus. 

Barsimaeus  bishop  of  E- 
dessa    suffers    martyrdom ; 
others  place  it,  Ann.  109. 

106 

8 

9 

L.  Ceionius  Commodus 
Verus. 

L.  Tullius  Cerealis. 

The    Greek     Menology 
mentions     11000    Christian 
Soldiers  banished  by  Trajan 
into  Armenia,  and  that  10000 
of  them  were  crucified  upon 
Mount  Ararat. 

107 

9 

10 

C.  Sosius  Sene6io  IV. 
L.  Licinius  Sura  III. 

The    third    persecution 
wherein  Simeon    bishop  of 
Jerusalem  is  crucified  in  the 
120th  year  of  his  age. 

Ignatius  bishop  of  Antioch. 
condemned,     and     sent    to 
Rome  to  be  thrown  to  wild 
Beasts. 

108 

10 
11 

Ap.  Annius  Trebonius 

Gallus. 
M.  Atilius  Bradua. 

Ignatius's  bones  are  con- 
veyed back  to  Antioch,  and 
there  solemnly  interred. 

109 

11 

12 

A.  Cornel.  Palma  II. 
C.  Calvisius  Tullus  IL 

Onesimus,  St.  Paul's  dis- 
ciple, whom  the  martyrolo- 
gies  make  bishop  of  Ephe- 
sus, stoned  at  Rome,  Feb.  16. 

Primus  made  bishop  of 
Alexandria. 

110 

12 
13 

Clodius  Crispinus. 
Solenus  Orfilus  Haata. 

Euaristus  succeeds  Ana- 
cletus    bishop     of     Rome, 
though    the    Greeks,    who 
makes  Cletus  and  Anacle- 
tus  the  same  person,  make 
him  immediately  to  follow 
Clemens. 

:i  K 


30O 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann.     1       Koniau 
'^hr.     1    emperors. 

Consuls.                          1               Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

Ill 

Trajani     13 
14 

L.  Calpuinius  Piso. 
Vettius  RusticusBolanus 

Justus  dying  Zacchaeus 
succeeds  in  the  see  of  Jeru- 
salem. 

112 

14 
15 

Imp.  Trajanus  VI. 
C.  Julius  Africanus, 

113 

15 

16 

L.  Publius  Celsus. 
C.  Clcdius  Crispinus. 

114 

16 
17 

Q.  Ninnius  Hasta. 
P.  Maiilius  Vroiscus. 

115 

17 

18 

M.  Valerius  Messala. 
vel  til  al.  Adrianus  & 
Silinator. 
C.  Popilius  Cavus  Pcdc. 

The  Jews  at  Alexandria, 
and  about  Cyrene  in  Egypt 
rebel,  who  are  slain  in  great 
numbers. 

116 

18 
19 

^milius  ^£Iianus. 
L.  AntistiuE  Vetus. 

Papias  bishop  of  Hierapo- 
lis  sets  on  foot  the  Millena- 
rian  doctrine. 

117 

19 

20 
Adrian9  -| 

ab.Aug.9j 

Quinctius  Niger. 

T.  Vipsanius  Apronia- 
nus 

118 

1 
2 

Imp.  Adrianus  II. 
T.  Claudius  Fuscus'. 

The    fourtli    persecution 
"•raised    against    the    Chris- 
tians, reenforcingthat  which 
had  been  set  on  foot  by  Tra- 
jan. 

119 

2 
3 

Imp.  Adrianus  III. 
Q.  Junius  Rusticus. 

Pope  Evaristus  martyred. 
He  sat  9  years,  3  months,  10 
days.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Alexander  a  Roman. 

Justus  made  bishop  of  A- 
lexandria. 

120 

3 
4 

L.  Catilius  Severus. 
T.  Aui'elius  Fulvus, 

fiostea 

Imp.  Antoninus. 

'I'he  Christians  severelv 
prosecuted  at  Rome,  where- 
of many  martyrs,  and  more 
driven  to  hide  themselves  in 
the  Cryptx  and  Ccemeteria 
under  ground. 

121 

4 
5 

M.  Annius  \  erus  II.                 A  great  tumult  at  Alexan- 
dria   about     the    idol  Apis 
L.  Augur.                               found  there. 

122 

5 
6 

]M.  Acilius  Aviola.                     The  persecution   rages  m 
Asia,  under  the  go\ernment 
1  of  Arrius  Antoninus  the  Pro- 
Corellius  Pansa.*,                  consul. 

6 

Q.  Arrius  Paetinus. 

Adrian  comes  to  Athens, 
and  is  initiated  in  the  Eleu- 

123 


C.  Ventidius  Apronianus. 


siman  mysteries. 

Quadratus  bishop  of  A- 
thens,  and  Aristides  present 
apologies  to  the  eirperor  in 
behalf  of  the  Christians. 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


531 


Ann. 
Chr. 


Roman 
ennit-rors. 


Cousuh. 


Ecclisia»tical  Ail'aiiS. 


Adriiuii.      7 


M.  Acilius  Glabrio. 


C.  Bellicius  Torquatus. 


SerenmsGraiiianus  writes 
to  the  empei-or  in  fiivour  of 
the  Christians,  by  whose  re- 
script to  M.  Fandanus  Pro* 
consul  of  Asia  (Gi'anianus's 
successor)  the  proceedings 
against  them  are  miti- 
gated. 


P.  Cornelius  Scipio 

Asiaticus  II. 
Q.  Vettius  Aquilinus. 


10 


\'esproni9  Candid9 

Ver9  II. 
Ambiguus  Bibuhis. 
at.  M.  Loll.  Pedius. 
Q.  Jan.  JL,epidus. 


Adrian  revisits  Athens, 
finishes  and  dedicates  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius, 
and  an  altar  to  himself. 


Gallicanus. 

C.  Caelius  Titianus. 


11 


12 


L.  Nonius  Asprenas 

Torquatus- 
M.  Annius  Libo. 


Aquila,  a  kinsman  of  the 
emperors,  first  turns  Chris- 
tian, then  apostatizing  to  Ju- 
daism, translates  the  Old 
TestH.ment  into  Greek. 


Q.  Juveniius  Celsus. 
Q.  Julius  Balbus. 


13 


14 


Q.  Fabius  CatuUinus. 


M.  Flavins  Aper. 


^-Elius  Adrianus  having 
repaired  Jerusalem,  calls  it 
after  his  own  name,  JElia. 

The  martyrdom  of  Alex- 
ander bishop  of  Rome,  after 
he  had  sat  10  years,  five 
months  £0  days,  to  whom 
succeeded  Sixtus  a  Roman. 


Ser.  Octavius  Laenas 

Pontianus. 
M.  Antonius  Rufinus. 


Hymenxus  made  bishop 
of  Alexandria,  being  the  6th 
bishop  of  that  see. 


15 


16 


Sentius  Augurinus. 


Arrius  Severianus. 


ilic  Jews  rebel  against 
the  Romans  under  the  con- 
duct of  Barchochab  an  im- 
postor. 

Justin  Martyr  conv:erted 
to  Christianity  about  this 
time,  or  it  may  be,  the  fol- 
lowing  year. 


16 


17 


Hibcrus. 


Jul.  Silanus  Sisenna. 


The  Jews  dispersed  and 
overcome  by  the  prudent 
arts  of  Julius  Severus  the 
Roman  general,  though  not 
fully  suppressed  till  the  fol- 
lowing year,  when  Barcho- 
chab was  executed. 


532 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann,     1       Koman        i                        „.                            1                  t,,--..^. 
Chr.    !    emperor.      (                     Consuls.                       |                Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

134 

Ailriani    17 
18 

C.  Julius  Servilius 
Ursus  Severianus. 

C.  Vibius  Juventius  Ve- 
rus. 

Basilides  the  HaeresiarcU 
makes  himself  famous  at 
Alexandria. 

135 

18 
19 

Pompeianus  Lupercus. 

L.  Juni9  Atticus  Acili- 
anus. 

Marcus,  the  first  of  the 
Gentile  converts,  made  bi- 
shop of  Jerusalem,  all  hith- 
erto having  been  of  the  cir- 
cumcision. 

136 

19 
20 

Li.  Ceionius  Commodus 
Verus. 

Sex.  Vetiilenus  Pompe- 
ianus. 

Getulius,  Amantius,  Ce- 
realis,  and  several  others 
suffer  martyrdom. 

137 

20 

21 

L.  /tlius  Verus  Cssar  11. 

P.  Cxlius  Balbinus 
VibuUius  Pius. 

Phlegonthe  i'rallian,  for- 
merly servant  to  the  empe- 
ror Adrian  here  ends  his 
book  of  Olympiads.  Olym. 
229.  An.  1. 

138 

21 
Antoninus 
Piu*  Jul.  10 

1 

Sulpicius  Uameriuus. 
Quinct.  Niger  Magnus. 

■ 

139 

1 
2 

Imp.  Antoninus  Pius  11. 
Bruttius  Prxsens. 

140 

S 

Imp.  Anton.  Pius  III. 
M.  Aurelius  Casar. 

Upon  Sixtus's  martyr- 
dom Telesphorus  is  chosen 
bishop  of  Rome,  according 
to  the  Roman  account. 

J.  Martyr  presents  his 
first  (usually  put  second) 
apology  for  the  Christians. 

141 

'  3 
4 

M-  Peducaeus  Syloga^ 

Priscinus. 
T.  Hoenius  Sevcrus. 

142 

4 
5 

L.  Cuspius  Rufipus, 
L.  Statins  Quadratus. 

About  this  time  the  most 
absurd  and  sensless  here- 
tics, the  Ophitae  Cainitae, 
and  Sethiani  arise. 

143 

5 

6 

C.  Belliciu^  Torquatus. 
T.  Claudius  Atticus 
Herodes. 

144 

6 

7 

LolUanus  Avitus. 
C.  Gavius  Maximus. 

Eumenes  or  Hymenaeus 
bishop  of  Alexandria  dies, 
Marpus  the  seventh  bishop 
of  that  see  succeeds. 

Valentinus  the  heretic  ap- 
pears. 

145 

7 
8 

Imp.  Anton.  Pius  IV. 
M.  Aurelius  Caesar  II. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


533 


Ch":!     cmpcron.                              t--'^-                                           KceIesiastic-aAftia«. 

146 

Aiitoiiiiu 

9 

Sex.  Erucius  Clarus  II. 

• 
Cn.  Claudius  Sevcrus. 

Marcion  after  his  frequent 
recantations,    again    lapses 
into  heresy,  which  he  pro- 
pagates more  industriously 
than  before. 

ur 

9 

10 

M.  Valerius  Largus. 
M.    Valerius    Messali- 
nus. 

148 

10 

11 

C.   BelUcius    Torquatus 

11. 
M.  Salvius  Julianus  II. 

149 

11 

12 

Ser.  Corneli9  Scipio  Oi- 

fit9. 
Q.  Nonius  Priscus. 

C'eladion  succeeds' as  the 
eighth    bishop    of    Alexan- 
<iria. 

150 

12 
13 

Romulus  Gallicanus. 
Antistius  Vetus. 

151 

13 

14 

Sex    Quinctilius  Gordi- 

an9. 
Sex.  Quinct.  Maximus. 

152 

14 
15 

Sex.  Acilius  Glabi'io. 

C.  Valerius  Omollus  Va- 
rianus. 

Pope  Telesphorus  mar- 
tyred, having  sat  11  years, 
9  months,  3  days.  Petav. 
5cc. 

Hyginus  succeeds. 

153 

15 

16 

Bruitius  Prxsens  II. 
M.  Antonius  Rufinus. 

154 

16 
17 

L.  Aurelius  Cxsar. 
Sextilius  Lateranus. 

^  Anicetus  according   to 
the  account  of  the  Greeks, 
succeeds  about  this  time  in 
the  see  of  Rome,  not  long 
after    Avhich    St.  Polycarp 
comes  thither  :  and  this  no 
doubt  much  truer  than  the 
computation  of  the  church  of 
Rome. 

155 

17 
18 

C  Julius  Severus. 

M.  Rufinus  Sabinianus. 

156 

18 
19 

Plautius  Sylvanus. 
Sentius  Augurinus. 

Pope  Hyginus  martyred, 
after  he  had  sitten  4  years, 
wanting  two  days,  to  whom 
Pius  succeeds.     Petav.  Ric- 
ciol.  Briet..  &c. 

157 

19 

20 

Barbatus. 
Regulus. 

168 

20 
21 

Q.  Fl.  Tertullus. 
Licinius  Sacerdos. 

*  In  the  catalogue  of  the  bishops  of  Rome  I'ecorded  by  Optatus  and  St. 
Augustin,  Anicetus  is  set  before  Pius  :  accordiug  to  which  account  Ani- 
cetus's  succession  in,  that  see,  and  consequently  Polycarp's  coming  to 
Rome,  must  be  placed  fifteen  rears  sooner.  See  the  life  of  St.  Polycarp, 
"Num.  IV. 


534 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Aiifi.    1       Roman 
Clir.    ;     emperors. 

Consuls.                       j                 Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

159 

Aiitoiiini  o  l 

riautius  Quinctillus. 
Statins  Priscus. 

160 

22 
23 

T.  Vibius  Barus. 
Ap.  Annius  Bradiia. 

161 

23 

M.  Aure-"l 
lius  L.      1 
Aelius       }>1 
Verus  a6.  | 
Martii.    J 

M.  Aurelius  Cxsar  III. 
L.  ^lius  Vex-us  Cxsar  11. 

162 

1 
2 

Q.  Junius  Rusticus. 
Vettius  Aquilinus. 

Justin  the  martyr  pre- 
sents his  other  apology  to 
the  emperor  in  behalf  of  the 
Christians. 

The  fifth  persecution  be-- 
gun. 

163 

2 
3 

L.  Papirius  iElianus. 
Junius  Pastor. 

Justin  suffered  martyrdom 
(probably  about  this  time) 
at  Rome,  or  at  most,  the 
next  year. 

164 

3 
4 

C.  Julius  Macrinus. 
L.  Cornelius  Celsus. 

Marcus  and  Timotheus 
martyred  at  Rome. 

165 

4 
5 

L.  Arrius  Pudens. 
M.  Gavius  Orfitus. 

Upon  pope  Pius's  mar- 
tyrdom, Anicetus  is  -dvan- 
ced  into  the  chair:  though 
Eusebius  and  the  Greeks 
according  to  their  account, 
make  his  pontificate  com- 
mence, Ann.  Christ.  154,  and 
accordingly  fix  the  time  of 
Polycarp's  coming  to  Rome. 

166 

5 
6 

Q.  Sei'vilius  Pudens. 
L.  Fusidius  PoUio. 

167 

6 

7 

L.  Aurelius  Verus. 

T.  Numidius  Quadratus. 

St.  Poiycarp,  bishop  of 
Smyrna,  suffers  martyrdom 
there,  together  with  Ger- 
manicus  and  others. 

168 

7 
8 

T.  Junius  Montanus. 
L.  Vettius  Paulus. 

Theophiius  made  bishop 
of  Antioch,  who  learnedly 
defends  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity against  the  Gentiles, 
Eusebius  refers  it  to  the  fol- 
lowing year. 

169 

8 
9 

Sosius  Priscus. 

Q.  Cxlius  Apnllinaris. 

Gervasius  and  Protasius 
undei'go  martyrdom  about 
this  time  at  Millain. 

170 

9 
10 

L.  Julius  Clarus. 

M.  Aurelius  Cethegus. 

Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis, 
and  ApoUinai'is,   bishop  of 
Hieriipolis,    present     their 
apologetics  to  the  emperor 
for  the  Christians. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


535 


Ann.    ,'       Roman       1                       r<       ,■ 

Ecclesiastical  AfTairs. 

171 

M.  Aiiiv-~i 
liiUAdii  S 
Vcri.        J 
10 

11 

L.  Septimius  Severus  II. 
al.  T.  I'ibinus  Serenus. 

Herennianus. 

a/.  C  Scoedius  Natta. 

Moiitanus  and  his  accom- 
plices, authors  of  the  nevf 
prophecy,  begin  now  more 
plainly  to  discover  them- 
selves, having  craftily 
broached  their  errors  some 
years  before. 

172 

11 
12 

Claudius  Maximus. 
Cornelius  Scipio  Orfitus. 

Tatian,  heretofore  Justin 
martyr's  scholar,  becomes 
author  of  the  sect,  called 
Er<cr;ilit?E. 

Bardesanes  the  Syrian  in- 
fected with  Valentinianism; 

173 

12 
13 

Claudius  Severus. 

T.    Claudius    Pompeia- 
nus. 

Pope  Aiiicetus  crowned 
with  martyrdom,  having 
been  bishop  of  Rome  8  years, 
2  months,  7  days. 

Soter  succeeds. 

174 

13 
14 

Annius  Trebonius  Cal- 
lus. 
L.  Flaccus. 

M.Aureiius's  victory  over 
the  Quadi  and  Marcomanni 
in  Germany,  gained  by  the 
prayers  of  the  Christian  le- 
gion. 

175 

14 
15 

Calpurnius  Piso. 
M.  Salvius  Julianus. 

176 

15 

16 

r.  Vitrasius  Pollio. 
M.  Flavins  Aper. 

177 

16 
17 

L.  Aurel.    Commodus. 
Imp. 

Plautius  Quinctillus. 

Soter  being  taken  away 
by  martyrdom,  Eleutherus 
a  Cireek  succeeds  in  the 
church  of  Rome. 

Athenagoras  the  Chris- 
tian philosopher  of  Athens  is 
now  supposed  to  have  pre- 
sented his  ajiology. 

178 

17 
18 

Yittius  Rufus. 
Cornelius  Scipio  Orfitus. 

The  foregoing  year  a  per- 
secution raged  horribly  in 
France,  wherein  besides 
many  others  died  Pothinus, 
bishop  of  Lyons,  to  whom 
succeeded  Irenxus,  the  year 
following. 

179 

18 
19 

Imp.  L.   Aureliua  Com- 

dusll. 
Vespronius     Candidus 

Verus. 

The  Cataphrygian  heresy 
greatly  prevails. 

180 

19 

Commo-  "^ 
dus  a         5-1 
Mart.  If.J 

Brut^us  Prxsens  II. 

S^tfc.  Quinctili9  Gordia- 
nus. 

Julianus  created  bishop  of 
x\lexandria. 

Pantseuus  a  Christian 
philosopher,  opens  the  ca- 
techetic  school  at  Alexan- 
dria. 

536 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann.    1       Roman       1                        r^i                          1                 „...,.^. 
Cbr.    !      emperor.      |                        Consuls.                       |                 Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

181 

Commodi    1 

2 

Imp.  Commodus  111. 
Antistius  Burrhus. 

The   persecution   against 
the  Christians  much  abated. 

182 

2 
o 

Petronius  Mamertinus. 
Trebellius  Rufus. 

Theodotion  of  Pontus,  first 
a  Marcionite,  then  a  Jew, 
translates  the  Old  Testa- 
ment into  Greek. 

The  temple  of  Serapis  at 
Alexand'-ia  burn'-  down.     ' 

183 

o 

4 

Imp.  Commodus  1\  . 
M.  Aufidius  Victorinus. 

184 

4 
5 

M.  Eggius  Marullus  seu 

Marcellus. 
M.  Papirius  iEliamis. 

Commodus  introduces  the 
worship  of  Isis  (formerly 
proliibited)  into  Rome. 

185 

5 

6 

Triarius  Maternus. 
M-  Atilius  Metilius  Bra- 
dua. 

186 

6 

7 

Imp.  Commodus  V. 
M,  Acilius  Glabrio. 

About  this  time  Lucius  a 
Prince  of  Britain  is  said  to 
have  sent  letters  to  Pope 
Eleutherius  to  furnish  him 
with  preachers  to  publish 
the  Christian  faith  in  these 
parts. 

Origen  born. 

187 

7 
8 

TuUius  sen  Clodius 
Crispinus. 

Papirius  ^lianus. 

Apollonius  a  great  Philo- 
sopher, and  (as  St  Hierom 
affirms)  a  senator,  pleads 
his  own,  and  the  cause  of 
the  Christian  religion  before 
the  senate,  for  which  he  suf- 
fers martyrdom. 

188 

8 

9 

C.  AUius  Fuscianus. 
Duillius  Silanu^;. 

The  Capitol  burnt  by 
lightning,  which  destroyed 
the  adjacent  buildings,  es- 
pecially the  famous  Libra- 
ries. 

189 

9 

10 

Junius  Silanus. 

Q.  Servilius  Silanu^-. 

Demetrius  ordKuicd  bi- 
shop of  Alexandria,  who  sat 
43  years. 

Serapion  made  bishop  of 
Antioch,  this,  or  as  others, 
the  following  year. 

190 

10 

11 

Imp.  Commodus  VI. 

Petronius  Septimianus. 

Commodus  will  have  him- 
self accounted  Hercules,  the 
son  of  Jupiter,  and  accord- 
ingly  habits  himself;  with 
other  extravagant  instances 
of  folly. 

11 
191                 12 

Cassius  Apronianus. 
M.  Attilius  Metilius 
Rradua  II. 

Julian  a  Senator,  and  ma- 
ny others  said  to  be  martyr- 
ed about  this  time. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


537 


^^T    1    enll^r.'.     !                      ^on..U.                     |                Ecclesiastical  Affair,. 

192 

Cooiiuodi  12 

13 

Imp.  Com  modus  VIL 
P.  Helvius  Pei-tinax. 

Pope  Eleutherius  having 
sat   15   years  and  23  days, 
dies ;  in  whose  room  Victor, 
an  African,  succeeds. 

193 

Pcitinax 
a  1  Jaimar. 
Did.  Juliaii9 
a  Mart.  28. 
Severus   ~i 

a  Mail  llj 

Q.  Sosius  Falco. 
C.  Julius  Clarus. 

194 

1 

2 

Imp.  Severus  II. 

Clodius  Albinus  Caesar 
II. 

Clemens    Alexandrinus 
Pantaenus's     scholar     and 
successor  in  the  Catechetic 
school,    was    famous  about 
this  time. 

Pope  Victor  excommuni- 
cates Theodorus  the  heretic. 

195 

2 
3 

Q.  Fi.  TeriuUus. 
T.  Fl.  Clemens. 

Narcissuss  made  bishop  of 
Jerusalem.  He  is  famous  for 
miracles  and  an  holy  life. 

196 

3 
4 

Cn.  Domitius  Dexter. 

L.  Valeri9  Messala 
Priscus. 

Pope  Victor  revives  the 
controversy  about  the  cele- 
bration of  Easter,  threatens 
to  excommunicate  the  Asi- 
atic Churches,  for  which  he 
is  severely  reproved  by  ma- 
ny, and  especially  by  Ire- 
naeus. 

Several  Synods  holden  to 
this  purpose. 

197 

4 
5 

Ap.  Claudius  Lateranus. 
M.  Marius-  Rufinus. 

The  Jews  and  Samaritans 
rebel,  and  are  overcome,  and 
their  religion  strictly  forbid- 
den. Severus  triumphs  for 
that  victory. 

198 

5 

6 

Tib.  Aterius  Saturninus. 
C.  Annius  Treboni9 
Gall  us. 

199 

6 
7 

P.  Cornelius  Anulinus. 
M.  Aufidius  Fronto. 

Severus  creates  his    son 
Antoninus  emperor,  his  son 
Geta  Caesar,  and  bestows  a 
large  donative  upon  the  sol- 
diers, which  ga\  e  occasion 
t(i  Tertullian   to  write  his 
book  De  Corona. 

200 

7 
8 

Tib.  Claudius  Severus. 
C.  Aufidius  Victorinus. 

'Ihe  Christians  at  Rome 
severely  treated  by  Plauti- 
anus  Prefect  of  the  city, 
and  in  Africa  by  Saturninus 
the  Proconsul. 

Tei'tulliH'.i  writes  his  A- 
pologetic  either  this,  or  the 
following  year. 

^38 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann. 
Chr. 

Ilomau 
emperor. 

Consuls.                        1 

Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

201 

Severi   8 
9 

L.  Annjus  Fabianus. 
M.  Nonius  Mucianus. 

Pope  Victor  after  9  years, 
and  2  months.'being  martyr- 
ed, leaves  the  place  to  Ze- 
phyrinus. 

Tertullian  presents  his 
discourse  to  the  president 
Scapula. 

202 

9 
10 

Imp.  Severus  III. 

Imp.  Antoninus  Cara- 
calla. 

The  sixth  persecution  ; 
wherein  Leonidas,  Origen's 
father  suffers  martyrdom  at 
Alexandria:  Irenaeus  at 
Lyons  in  France. 

203 

< 

10 
11 

P.  Septimius  Geta. 

L.  Septimius  Plautiainis. 

Origen  a  very  youth  sets 
up  a  grammar  school  at  A- 
lexandria,  and  becomes  fa- 
mous. 

At  18  years  of  age  he  is 
preferred  by  Demetrius  the 
bishop  to  be  instructor  of  the 
Chatechumens. 

204 

11 
12 

L.  Fabius  Chilo  Septi- 
mius. 

M.  Annius  Libo. 

The  Secular  games  cele- 
brated at  Rome,  upon  whicli 
occasion,  probably,  Tertul- 
lian wrote  his  book  De  Spec- 
taculis,  and  it  may  be  that 
De  Idololatria. 

,205 

12 
13 

Imp.  Antoninus 
Caracalla  II. 

P.  Septimius  Geta 
Csesar. 

206 

13 
14 

M.  Nummi9  Annius 

Albin9 
Fulvius  ^^milianus. 

Urigen  makes  the  famous 
attempt  upon  himself,  in  ma- 
king himself  an  Eunuch. 

for 

14 
15 

M.  Flavins  Aper. 
'Q.  Alliire  Maximus. 

Tertullian  writes  against 
the  Marcionites ;  and  his 
book  De  Pallio,  and  was 
then  (probably)  made  Pres- 
byter of  Carthage. 

About  this  time  Minucins 
Felix  is  supposed  to  pub- 
lish his  dialogue  called  Oc- 
tavius. 

208 

15 
16 

Imp.  Antoninus 
Caracalla  III. 

P.  Spetimius  Geta 
C?esar  II. 

16 
209 

17 

T.  Claudius  Ponipeia- 

nus. 
Lnllianus  Avitus. 

17 
JIO                 18 

ivi.  Acilius  Faustjnus. 
C.  Cccsonius  Macer 
Rufinianus. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


f39 


Ann.    I 
Chr.     ] 

liuinau      1 
eniptrors.     \ 

Consuls.                        1 

Kcelfsiastical  Aftairs. 

211 

Sevcii 18 

Antoiri-   ") 

IIUS               1 

Caracal-   r-1 
la  a  4        1 
Fobr.       J 

Q.  Epidius  Kutus  Lollia- 
nus  Gcntianus. 

Pornponius  Bassus. 

212 

1 

2 

M.  Pompeius  Aspcr.               Alexander  a  Cappadociaij 
bishop,  made  bishop  of  Je- 
P.  Asper.                               rusalem. 

213 

2 

Imp.  Caracalla  1\'. 
P.  Cailius  Balbinus. 

214 

3 

4 

Silius  Mcssala. 

Q.  Aquilius  Sabinus. 

A  disputation  held  at 
Rome  between  Caius  and 
Proclus  one  of  Montanus's 
disciples  ;  whereupon  Pope 
Zephyrin  excluded  Proclus 
and  Tertulian  communion 
with  the  church  of  Rome, 
which  occasioned  Tertul- 
lian's  starting  aside  to  Mon- 
tanus's party. 

215 

4 
5 

.^miiius  Lxtus. 
Anicius  Cerealis. 

'I'ertidlian  writes  against 
the  Orthodox,  against  whom 
he  inveighs  under  the  name 
of  Psychici. 

216 

5 

6 

Q.  Aquilius  Sabinus  11. 
Sex.  Corn.  Annulinus. 

217 

6 

7 

Macrinus"! 
&  Diadu-  1 
men.  F.  a  ^-l 
10  April.  J 

Bruttius  Praesens. 
Extricatus. 

A  Greek  translation  of  the 
Bible,  called  the  fifth  edi- 
tion, found  in  a  hogshead  at 
Jericho,  insetted  by  Origeij 
into  his  Octapla. 

218 

2 

Antoni-   ~| 
nils  Ela-   1 
gabalus    J"l 
a  7  Jun.  J 

Anton.  Diadumeuus 
Caesar. 

Adventus. 

219 

1 

2 

Imp.  Elagabalus  11. 
Licinius  Sacerdos. 

Pope  Zephyrin  dies.  He  sat 
22  years  and  so  many  days. 
Succeeded  by  Callistus. 

220 

2 

Imp.  Elagabalus  JIT. 

M.  Aurelius  Eutychia- 
nus  Comazon. 

Julius  Africanus  a  famous 
Christian  writer,  sent  upon 
an  embassy  to  the  emperor, 
for  the  rebuilding  of  Nicopo- 
lis   (anciently    Emmaus)   a 
city  in  Palestine. 

221 

3 
4 

Annius  Gratus. 
Claudius  Selencus. 

222 

4  1  Imp.  Eliigabalus  IV  .          |       Hippolv  tus  bishop  ot  Por- 
Aiexan-  "^       M.  AuveliusSevevus            tus    composes  his    Paschal 
fM-^*r;i^'     Alexander  Caesar.              canon. 

sm 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann.    1      Roman 
Chr.    1    emperors. 

Consuls.                          1                Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

223 

Alexandri.  i 
2 

Maximus. 
Papirius  .iHlianus. 

Among  tiie  famous  men 
of  this  time  was  Ulpian  the 
lawyer,    who  collected  all 
the  imperial  edicts  formerly 
published  against  the  Chris- 
tians. 

224 

2 
3 

Claudius  Julianus. 
Claudius  Crispinus, 

The    Christians    cruelly- 
persecuted  at  Rome,  at  the 
instigation    of    Ulpian    the 
great  lawyer. 

Pope  Callistus  martyred, 
after  he  had  sat  5  years,  1 
month,    12    days.       Urban 
chosen  in  bis  roonV^ 

225 

3 
4 

L.  'ruipilius  Uexter. 
M.  Maecius  Rufus. 

226 

4 
5 

Imp.  Alexander  11. 
C.    Quinctilius  Marcel- 
lus. 

227 

5 

6 

I).  Caliub  balbiiius  Ji. 
M.  Clodius  Pupienus 
Maxitnus. 

Hippol)  tus,  bishoi>  of  Por- 
tus,  suffers  martyrdom. 

228 

6 
7 

Vettius  Modestus. 
Probus. 

Origeu  ordained   presby- 
ter by  Alexander,  bishop  of 
Jerusalem,  ind  Theoctistus 
of  ^ssarea. 

229 

7 
8 

Imp.  Alexuiider  111. 
Dio  Cassius,  historicus. 

The  sixth  Greek,  edition 
found  at  Nicopolis. 

230 

8 
9 

Calpurnius  Agricola. 
Clementiuus. 

Origen  prosecuted,   and 
synodically    condemned  b; 
Demetrius  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria. 

231 

9 
10 

T.   Claudius    Pompeia- 
nus. 

Felicianus. 

O;  igen  resigns  up  his  ca- 
techetic  school  to  his  scholar 
Heraclas,   who  is  soon  aftei 
chosen  bishop   of    Alexau 
dria. 

Pope  Urban  beheaded 

He  is  succeeded  by  Ponti- 
anus. 

232 

10 
11 

Julius  Lupus. 
Maximus. 

Origeo     departs     from 
Alexandria,   and  fixes    his 
residence  at  Cxsarea  in  Pa- 
lestine, 

Plotinus  becomes  Ammo- 
nius's   scholar  at    Alexan- 
dria. 

233 

11 

12 

Maximus  11. 

( )vi!iius  Paternus. 

234 

12 

1,3 

Maximub  III. 
Urb:.r.i,-.. 

Pontianus  bishop  of  Rome 
banished  into  Sardinia. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


SU 


Ann.   1      Roman 
Chr.    1     emperors. 

Consuls. 

Ecclesiastical  Afiatrs, 

235 

Alteandri. 
13 
14 

Maximi- ") 
nus  a  18    >1 
Maitii.    J 

L.  Catilius  S«venis. 

L.  Ragonius  Urinatius 
Quintianus. 

Mdxiniiiiut,  raises  the  se- 
venth  persecution  against 
the  Christians. 

Origen  writes  his  exhor- 
tation to  Martyrdom. 

Pope  Pontianus  suffers 
martyrdom  in  Sardinia. 

Anterus  succeeds  in  the 
chair. 

236 

1 

2 

Imp.  Maximiuus. 
C.  Julius  Africanus. 

Anterus  scarce  havhig 
possessed  his  place  one 
month,  is  slain;  and  Fabian, 
elected  in  his  room. 

237 

2 
3 
Pupienuj-^ 
Balbinus   >-l 
aMuiije.J 

P.  Titius  Pei-peluus. 

L.  Ovinias  Rusticus  Cor- 
nelianus. 

238 

1 

Gordia-   *> 
nus  a         1  . 
mense        j 
Martii.     J 

M.  Ulpius  Crinituh. 

C.  Nonius  Proculus  Pon- 
tianus. 

239 

1 

2 

imp.  Gordiauus. 
M.  Acilius  Aviola. 

Zebinub,  bishop  of  Anti- 
och,  dies;  Babylas  is  cho- 
sen to  that  See. 

240 

2 
3 

Vettius  Sabinus. 
Venustus, 

About  this  time  Origen  is 
thought  to  have  taken  his 
second  journey  to  Athens, 
where  he  finished  his  com-" 
mentaries  upon  Ezekiel. 

241 

3 

4 

Imp.  Gordianus  II. 
T.  CIaudi9    PompeianQ 
II. 

242 

4 
5 

C.  Aufidius  Atticus. 
C.  Asinius  Prxtextatus. 

243 

5 
6 

C.  Julius  Africanus. 
iEmilius  Pappus. 

Origen  is  sent  for  into 
Arabia,  where  he  disputes 
with,  and  converts  Beryllus 
fi'ijm  his  unsound  and  erro- 
neous ojiinions. 

244 

6 
PhilippO  -^ 
a  mense    |»1'' 
April.       J 

Fulvius  Aimilianus. 
Peregrinus. 

245 

1 
0 

Imp.  Philippus. 
Tib.  Fabius  Titianus. 

246 

2 
3 

Bruttius  Prxsens. 
Nummius  Albinus. 

Dionysius,  one  of  Origen's 
scholars,  and  successors  in 
the  schola  KaT)i;t))V»av,'madc 
bishop  of  Alexandria. 

542 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Ann. 
Chr. 

j       Romau 
1     emperors. 

Consuls. 

Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

24.7 

Philippi.    3 

4 

Imp.  Philippus  II. 

M.  Philippus  F.  Cxsar. 

fhe  Annus  Millesimus  ab 
U.  C.  begun  this,  ended  the 
following    year,    and  cele- 
brated by  the  emperor  with 
all  imaginable  solemnity  and 
magnificence. 

248 

4 
5 

Imp.  Philippus  III. 

M.  Julius  Philippus    F. 

Cyprian  chosen  bishop  of 
Carthage. 

249 

5 
6 

Decius  a  "^ 

i-l 
Mali.        J 

Fulvius  ^iLniiliauub  11. 
Vettins  Aquilinus. 

A  tumult  raised  at  Alex- 
andria by  an  impostor,  gives 
occasion  to   a    preliminary 
persecution      against      the 
Christians  there. 

250 

1 

o 

Imp.  Messius  Decius. 

Annius  Maximus   Gra- 
tus. 

The  eighth  persecution 
I'aised  by  l3ecius. 

St.  Cyprian  in  retire- 
ment. 

Pope  Fabian  martyred.... 
After  whose  decease  a  va- 
cancy in  that  See  for  above 
ayear,Novatian  endeavour- 
ing to  thrust  himself  in. 

251- 

•S) 

Gall  us  &-] 
Volusia-    1  , 
ims  F.  a   r 
DrC.           J 

Imp.  Decius  11. 

Q.   Etruscus   Deci9    F. 
Cxsar. 

Great  schisms  in  the  Al- 
rican  churches  about  the 
lapsed. 

Cornelius  elected  bishop 
of  Rome. 

252 

1 

2 

Imp.  Trebonian9'  Gallus 
11. 

C.  Vibius  Volusianus. 

The  Novatian  doctrines 
condemned  in  a  synod  of  60 
bishops  of  Rome. 

The  emperors  renew  the 
persecution  begun  under 
Decius. 

A  great  mortality  through- 
out the  world. 

253 

2 
3 
Valeria-  ~i 
nus  ciim   1  , 
Gallieno   j 
F.  a  Dec  J 

C  V'ibius  Volusianus  11. 
M.  Valerius  Maximus. 

Cornelius  first  banished, 
recalled,  cruelly  beaten, and 
at  last  beheaded. 

Lucius  succeeds  him. 

254 

1 

2 

Imp.  Licinius  Valerianus 

II. 
Imp.  Gallienus. 

Origen  dies,  and  is  Duried 
at  Tyre. 

Valerian  the  emperor  at 
first  a  great  patron  of  the 
Christians. 

255 

2 

O 

Imp.  Valerianus  III. 

Imp,  Gallienus.  II. 

1 

Pope    Lucius,   after    one 
year  and  three  months,  suf- 
fers martyrdom.     Stephen, 
a  Roman,  chosen  to  l)e  his 
successor. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


543 


Ann. 
Clir. 

:        Roiiinii 
ciupinn^. 

Consuls. 

Kcclesiastical  Aftaus. 

256 

Valeiiani.  3 
4 

The   great     controversy 
M.  Valerius  Maximus.        about  the  re-baptizing  such 
as  had  been  baptized  by  he- 
retics hotly  ventilated. 
M.  Acilius  Glabrio.                 The  heats  between  Cyp- 
rian and  Stephen  of  Rome. 

"257 

4 
5 

The  ninth  persecution  be- 
Imp.  Valerianus  IV.             gun  by  \'alerian. 

Sabellius  confounds    the 
Imp.  Gallienus  III.              persons  in  the  Trinity,  and 
spreads  his  heresy. 

•258 

5 

6 

M.   Aurelius   Memmius 
Fuscus. 

Pomponius  Bassus. 

Pope  Stephen  slain  Aug. 
2.  which  others  refer  to  the 
foregoing  year.  Sixtus  suc- 
ceeds. 

St.  Cyprian  beheaded  at 
Carthage,  Sept.  14. 

2J9 

6 
Gallknus 
mollis,  capto 
Valer. 

7 

Fulvius  iEmilianus. 
al.  Gallienus  IV. 

Pomponius  Bassiis  II. 
al.  Valerianus///??. 

Pope  Sixtus  and  his  dea- 
con Laurentius  receive  the 
crown  of  martyrdom. 

Dionysius  succeeds  in  the 
See  of  Rome. 

260 

7 
8 

Cornelius  Secularis. 
Junius  Donatus. 

Paul  of  Samosata  made 
bishop  of  Antioch. 

Gallienus  stops  the  perse- 
cution against  the  Chris- 
tians. 

261 

8 
9 

Imp.  Gallienus  IV. 
Volusianus. 

Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria, writes  to  pope  Dio- 
nysius to  vindicate  himself 
from  the  suspicion  of  Sabel- 
lianism  charged  upon  him. 

262 

9 
10 

Imp.  Gallienus  V. 

App.  Pompeius  Fausti- 
nus. 

^limilian  attempts  to 
make  himself  emperor,  and 
besieges  Alexandria,  where 
the  Christians  are  reduced 
to  great  straits. 

263 

10 
11 

Nunimius  Albinus. 
Maximus  Dexter. 

264 

11 

12 

Imp.  (iallienus  VI. 
/Emilins  Saturninus. 

265 

12 
13 

Valerianus  Cxsar  II. 

L.   Caesonius    Lucillus 
Macer  Rufinianus. 

A  synod  held  iat  Antioch 
against  Paulus  Samosatenus 
the  bishop  of  it. 

Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria, and  Gregory,  bishop 
of  Neocxsarea  depart  this 
life. 

266 

13  1  Imp.  Gallienus  Vll,           |       Hymenxus    ordained   bi 

14  1  Sabinillus.                            |  shop  of  Jerusalem. 

544 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


Chr.'   !      em^ro".      )                        ^°"'"''-                       !                 Eccle»iastical  Affairs. 

267 

GalUeiu    14 
15 

Ovinius  Paternus. 
Arcesilaus. 

2B8 

15 

Claudius  "j 

.iMari.-lJ 

Ovinius  Paternus  II. 

Claudius  the  emperorpef- 
secutes    the    Christians   at 
Rome. 

269 

1 
2 

i.i.p.  .'.      .   .....aidiub. 

Ovinus  Paierniis  III. 

^0 

2 

Aureli-    "i 
anus         >l 
a  Mart.   J 

Flavius  Antiochianus. 
"iirius  Orfitus. 

Another  Synod  held  at 
Antioch,  wherein  Paul  of 
Samosata  is  condemned  and 
deposed,  and  Domnus  placed 
in  his  room. 

Pope  Dionysius  dies,  De- 
cember 26. 

271 

1 

2 

Imp.  Aurelianus. 
Poniponius  Bassus 
al.  C.  Jul.  Capitolinus. 

Felix    chosen    Bishop  of 
Rome. 

272 

2 

Quietus. 
1  Volrluniianus- 

Many    suffer   martyrdom 
about  this  time. 

273 

3 
4 

M.  Claudius  Tacitus. 
Furius  Placidianus. 

274 

4 
5 

Imp.  Aurelianus  II. 
C.  Julius  Capitolinus. 

Zenobia  queen  of  the  Pal- 
myreni,  a  Jewess,   and    (if 
some  might  be  credited)  a 
Christian,  overcome  by  Au- 
relian,  and   carried  in    tri- 
umph to  Rome. 

75 

5 

Tacitus  -^ 

Si 
a  2S  Sep.J 

Imp.  Aurelianus  III. 
T.  Nonius  Marcellinus. 

Pope  Felix  crowned  with 
martyrdom,   after    he    had 
sitten  4  years  and  5  months. 
His  successor  was  Eutychi- 
anus  a  Tuscan. 

276 

1 

FlorianusT 

April  U.J 
Probusa  "j 

J-1 
Jul.  1.     J 

Imp.  M.  v^i.  i  aciius  li. 
Fulvius  iEmilianus. 

277 

1 

2 

Imp.  Aurelius  Px'obus. 

Anicius  Paulinus 
al.  M.  Fuvins  Lupus. 

The  Manichaean  heresy 
springs      up,     planted     by- 
Manes  a  Persian,  originally 
culled  Curbicum,  the  author 
of  that  wUd  and  execrable 
sect. 

278 

2 

3 

iVnaloui.b  L)i^:^q.  ot  l..aodi- 

Imp.  Probus  II.                    cea,  eminent  tor  lus  skill  in 

philosophy      and     humane 

learning.     He  had  formerly 

been  colleague  with   Theo- 

I  tecnus  bishop  of  Caesarea  in 

M.  Furius  Lupus              |  Palestine. 

al.  Virius.                        |      Cyrillus  the  18th  bishop  of 

(  Antioch. 

A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


54,5 


"Ajin.    j       Roman 
Clir.     1     empiTor?. 

Consuls. 

Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

27.9 

Pi-obi.     3 

4 

Imp.  Probus  III. 

Ovinius  Patcrmis 

a/.  C.  .Tuniiis  Tiberianus. 

280 

4 
5 

•lunius  Mesaala. 
Gratns. 

281 

5 

6 

Imp.  Probus  IV. 

C.  Junius  Tiberianus. 

Theonas  created  bishop 
of  Alexandria,  the  15  bisliop 
of  tliat  church. 

282 

6 
7 

Carus       "] 
cum  F.F.  1 
Numeria-  1  , 
DO,  Cari-   J 
no  Aug.     1 
U.            J 

Imp.  Probus  V. 
Pomponius  Victovinus. 

283 

1 
2 

Imp.  JM.  Carus. 

M.  A.  Carinus  Cxsar. 

284 

2 

Dioelcsi-  ■"! 
anus  a       J«l 
Sept.  17.  J 

Imp.  Carinu3. 
Imp.  Numeriamis. 

Euiychianus,  bishop  of 
Rome,  crowned  with  mar- 
tyrdom, December  8.  His 
successor  was  Caius,  a  Dal- 
matian, and  a  kinsman  (as 
is  said)  of  Dioclesian. 

The  Dioclesian  xra  be- 
gins here. 

285 

1 

2 

Imp.  Dioclebianus  11. 
Aristobulns. 

286 

o 
3 

Maximus  Junius  Priscil- 
lianus. 

Vettius  Aquilimis. 

*  The  Thebsan  legion 
under  the  command  of  Mau- 
ricius,  being  sent  to  attend 
upon  Maximian  in  his  ex- 
pedition against  the  Bagau- 
da;,  and  refusing  to  do  sa- 
crifice, are  first  decimated, 
and  tken  universally  des- 
troyed at  Octodurus  in 
France. 

287 

3 

4 

Imp,  Dioclesianus  III. 

Imp.  Maximianus  Her- 
ciileus. 

Dioclesian  and  Maximian 
write  to  the  proconsul  of 
Africa  to  punish  the  Mani- 
chees,  to  burn  their  books, 
execute  their  persons,  and 
confiscate  their  estates. 

288 

4 
5 

M.  Aurelius  Maximus. 
Pomponius  Januarius. 

*  Though  this  seems  the  most  proper  period  for  the  martyrdom  of  the 
Thebaean  legion  when  Maximian  was  sent  against  the  rebels  in  France  ; 
5'et  is  it  said  in  the  acts  of  their  martyrdom,  that  in  their  journey  out  of 
the  east,  they  came  to  Rome,  and  were  confirmed  in  the  faith  by  Mar- 
cellinus  then  bishop  of  it.  \^^lich  if  so,  they  could  not  suffer  sooner  than 
Ann.  Chr.  CCXCVI.  when  Marcellinus  siiccceded  in  that  .see. 


546 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


-•\nn. 
Chr. 

Roman       . 
emperor.      ' 

Consuls.                        1 

Ecclesiastical  Affairs. 

289 

Dioclesiaiiij 
6 

Anniub  Bassus. 

L.  Ragonius  Quinctianus. 

' 

290 

6 

7 

Imp.  Dioclesianus  IV. 
Imp.  Maximianus  Her- 
culeus  II. 

Tharacus,  Probus,  and 
Andronicus  suffer  martyr- 
dom at  Tarsus  in  Cilicia. 

291 

7 
8 

C.  Junius  Tiberianus, 
Cassius  Dio. 

292 

8 
9 

Atranius  Hannibalianus. 
M.  Aur.  Asclepiodotus. 

293 

9 

10 

Imp.  Dioclesianus  V. 
Imp.  Maximianus  III. 

Dioclesian  assumes  the  ti- 
tle of  Lord,  challenges  di- 
vine honours,  and  suffers 
himself  to  be  adored  as  Cod. 

294 

10 

11 

Constantius  Chlorus  Cs- 

sar. 
Galerius    Maximianus 

Coisar. 

■295 

11 

12 

Nummius  Tuscus. 
Annius  Cornelius  Anu- 
linus. 

296 

12 
13 

Imp.  Dioclesianus  VI. 
Constantius  Csesar  II. 

Caius,  bishop  of  Rome, 
martyred  April  22. 

Marcellinus,  a  Roman, 
succeeds  in  the  government 
of  that  church,  who  in  the 
Dioclesian  persecution  lap- 
sed and  sacrificed  to  idols, 
though  recovering  he  died  a 
martyr. 

297 

13  Imp.  iVlaximianus  Hei- 

culeus  V. 

14  Galerius  Caisar  II. 

298 

14  Anicius  Faustus.                 {       Zabdas  ordained   the   27 

15  Severus  Gallus.                  |  bishop  of  Jerusalem. 

•299 

15  Imp.  Dioclesianus  \II.      j 
Imp.  Maximianus  Her-  j 

16  ciileus  VI.                       1 

oOO 

16 

17 

Constantius  Chlorus  Cx- 
sar  III. 

Galerius     Armcntarius 
Caesar  III. 

'i'he  Christians  at  Rome 
harassed  out  in  working  at 
Dioclesian's  baths,  most  of 
whom,  when  the  work  was 
finished,  were  put  to  death, 
though  the  tenth  persecu- 
tion did  not  uni^'ersally  be- 
gin till  three  years  after, 
Ann.  Chr.  303.  Diodes.  19. 

THE    END. 


SUBSCRIBERS'  NAMES. 


ANDERSON,  William  Philad. 

Alexander,  Rev.  A.  do. 

Allison,  Dr.  Burgess  do. 

Antly,  Robert  D.  do. 

Amos,  Abr.  do. 

Arnold,  Catharine  do. 

Annison,  John  do. 

Axe,  Frederick  Germantown. 

Armstrong-,  John  Wilmington 

Avery,  M.  Philad. 

Allison,  D.  10  copies,  Burlington. 

Armstrong-,  Thomas  do. 
Ayres,  D.                     Springfield,  N.  J. 

Alden,  Rev.  Timothy  Newark. 

Anderson,  Samuel  D.  Del.  co. 

Ackerman,  Ja.  J.  Newark. 

Allwood,  Marquis  do. 

Alium,  Samuel  Orange,  N.  J. 

AUing,  David  do. 


B. 

Budd,  Rev.  Thomas  L 
Brown,  David 
Burch,  James  K. 
Bateman,  Rev.  James 
Brown,  Jacob 
Boyle,  Niel 
Bergerie,  Jos. 
Brewer,  Geoige 
Barnes,  Mahlon 
Burch,  Rev.  Thomas 
Billings,  Thomas 
Bounard,  J. 
Burch,  James 
Barnett,  W. 
Benger,  Mary 
Bruner,  Jacob 
Butclier,  W. 
Butcher,  Thomas 
Backman,  J  B. 
Barnet,  Rachel 
Boisbran,  Stephen,  M. 
Baldwin.  Dr.' 
Bonus,  Milton 
Baylie,  John 
Barnes,  Milla 


Philad. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 
Germantown. 

do 

do. 

do. 

do. 

D.  do. 

Wilmington. 

Newport 

Bucks  CO. 

Newport. 


Bend,  Rev.  Jos.  G. 
Beasley,  Rev.  Frederick 
Bunbury,  H.  A. 
Bull,  John 
Bach,  John 
Brainies,  Ed. 
Baker,  Samuel 
Bavard,  Jonathan 
Baiwid,  Col.  W. 
Boudinot,  Hon.  Judge 
Baldwin,  Caleb  C. 
Balwin,  Johnson 
Bacon,  Job 
Brinseley,  Leonard 
Brewer,  Caleb  W. 
Brown,  Ebenezar 
Baldwin,  Jabez 
Beach,  Daniel  Y. 
Bowman,  Marj 
Brown,  Samuel  B. 
Beach,  Jos.  jun. 
Bolks,  Nathan 
Blaything,  Joseph 
Bahu,  Mathias 
Baldwin,  Caleb  T; 
Baldwin,  Israel  T. 
Baldwin,  Mathias 
Baker,  Mary,  2  copies. 
Barton,  Eden 


Baltimore 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Burlington. 

Brunswick 

do. 

Newark. 

do. 

do. 

Newark. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do^ 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Orange,  N.  J. 

Newark. 

Belville. 

Bloomfield,  N.J. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Del.  CO. 


C. 


Cooper,  Thomas 
Carter,  Thomas 
Charles,  Henry 
Crane,  Joseph 
Crane,  Josias 
Corry,  Molleston 
Cadmud.  T.  J.B. 
Cole,  Sarah 
Clarke,  Mary 
Clement  Jos.  T. 
Can,  W. 

Cartwright,  G.  F. 
Cui-v,  Martin 
Clark,  W. 
Clark,  Jer. 
Casdorf,  E. 


Philad. 

do. 

do. 
Bloomfield,  N.J. 

do. 

Philad. 

N.J. 

Philad. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

dp. 


SUBSCRIBERS'  NAMES. 


Coml)-,  Henry 
Comiton,  Daniel 
Cross,  Joseph 
Channon,  Joseph 
CoUiday,  Charles 
Culpp,  Abraham 
Clemmins,  Kettural 
Cripp,  John 
Comeyg-s,  John 
Cannahan,  Samuel 
Cieasy,  Josiah 
Cunningham,  John 
Cochrane,  Isaac 
Curry,  Benjamin  L. 
Coal,  J.  A. 

Chambers,  Dr. 

Curwen,  Geo.  F. 

Clark,  Samuel 

Carr,  Robert 

Clark,  Rev.  Jos. 

Croes,  John, 

Conditt,  Rev.  Ira 

Correll.  John  P. 

Clady,  Jacob 

Carsewell,  John 

Cook,  Benjamin 

Cummint^s,  D. 

Collie,  Samuel 

Clackson,  Belinda 

Cumming.  Hooper 

Christie,  Thomas 

Coe,  Benjamin 

Crane,  Rebecca 

Crane,  James 

Coug'en,  Ira 

Caldwell,  Hugh 

Craig-,  John 

Caldwell.  John 

Crane,  Ichabol 

Clark,  H.  jun. 

Courtie,  William 

Crane,  Eliza  B. 

Coley,  Daniid 

Cochasais,  Michael 

D. 

Dodd,  Abijah, 
Dodd,  Hiram 
Dercamerg^e,  Peter 
Drummond,  Josiah 
Dunn,  William 
Davis  Noah 
Doak,  Rtv.  S. 
Doak,  Rev.  J.  M. 
Dedier,  John  jun. 
Davis,  James 
Donglierty,  Dennis 
Dixon,  Deborah 
D^shield,  Rev.  George 


Philad. 

Dunker,  Perry 

Baltimore. 

do. 

Dorsey,  Owen 

do. 

Germantown. 

Df  how,  John 

New  Brunswick. 

do. 

1  Davis,  Martha 

do. 

do 

Dunn,  George 

do. 

do. 

Dunn,  Mary  Arsteen                         do. 

do. 

Dunn,  Jonathan 

do. 

Wilmington. 

Duffee,  Alexander 

Del.  CO. 

do. 

Donne,  Nathan 

do. 

do 

Davison,  James 

Newark. 

Newport,  D. 

Dorsett,  Samuel 

do. 

Philad. 

Douglass,  David 

Orange,  N.  J. 

Del.  CO. 

Davis,  William 

Newark. 

Christiana 

Doe,  John 

BelviUe,  N.  J. 

Baltimore. 

Dyson,  George 

do. 

do 

Dodd,  Samuel 

Bloomfield. 

do. 

Dodd,  Daniel 

do. 

do. 

Dodd,  Abner 

do. 

Burlington 

Donahue,  John 

do. 

Brunswick. 

Dodd,  Isaac 

do. 

do. 

Dodd,  Silas 

do. 

do. 

Dodd,  Abitha 

do. 

do. 

do. 

E. 

do. 

do. 

Evans,  Samuel 

Philad. 

Somerset  co. 

Evans,  Cadwallader 

do. 

Sprinjrfield,  J 

Enti'le,  Rebecca 

Germantown. 

Newark. 

Elliott,  W. 

Philad. 

do. 

Egbert,  Abraham 

Christiana. 

do. 

Englisli,  Isaac 

Burlington. 

do. 

Evciitt,  William 

Brunswick 

do. 

Eahle,  W    H. 

Newark. 

do. 

Each,  Joseph 

do. 

do. 

Del.  CO. 

F. 

do. 

do 

Fisher,  Rev.  W. 

Philad. 

Newark. 

f  urman,  Rev.  Rich. 

Charleston.  S.  C. 

do. 

Fordice,  John 

Philad. 

do. 

Frailev,  Jannes 

do. 

Orange,  N   J. 

Fox,  Rev  William 

do. 

BelviUe. 

Forbes,  Joseplj 

Germantown. 

Bloomtield. 

Fox,  Geoige 

do. 

Fry    Georsje 

do. 

Fryiiofler,''W. 

do. 

Fralley,  Leonard 

do. 

Bloomfield  N.  J. 

Freeman,  Rev.  Jos. 

R.   Staunton,  Va. 

do. 

Fidder,  Rev.  D. 

Baltimore. 

do. 

Fislier,  George  D. 

Brunswick. 

Philad. 

Finkinoolitt,  Isaac 

Newark. 

do. 

Faiilamb,  R'^bert 

Del   CO. 

do. 

Freeman,  Nathaniel 

Newark. 

Frankford 

Fordhaui,  Stephen 

BelviUe. 

(U>. 

Germantown. 

G. 

Derby. 

W   I. 

Greene,  Rev.  Dr.  A 

?hbel          Philad. 

Christiana. 

Garretson,  Rev.  F.  12 

copies,  N.York. 

■•e        Baltiiiiorc. 

Gartin,  Mary 

Philad. 

SUBSCRIBERS'  NAMES. 


Criass,  Rev,  Francis  Clermont  college. 

Glass,  Francis 

Gardner,  Charles 

(iuilliey,  Joseph 

GilfiUan,  Edward 

Glendy,  Rev.  Juhn 

Grosse,  Henry 

Garrettson,  Jane 

Grummond,  W. 

Gordon,  W.  G. 

Grant,  William  M. 

Gable,  Mary 

Cold,  John 

H. 


Lower  Dublin 
Philad 
do. 
do. 
Baltimore . 
Brunswick, 
do. 
Newark, 
do. 
do. 
do. 
Bloomfield. 


Harrison,  Moses  Bloomfield,  N.  J. 
Hopkins,  B.  B.  &  Co.50  Copies.  Phil. 
Hamilton,  W.  Bloomrield,  N.  J. 

Howich,  W.  Philad. 

Hill,  Mary  do. 

Hall,  John  do. 

Horsey,  Samuel  do. 

Harmer,  Samuel  Germantown. 

Hergersheimer,  Anthony.  do. 

Hooper,  James  do. 

Hassinger,  George  do. 

Harmer,  David  2  Copies,  do 


Humphrey,  Dr.  Gideon 
Henderson,  Rev.  Saml. 
Henderson,  Thomas 
Highlands  Henry, 
Hemphill,  Tliomas, 
Hopkins,  Mat   Esq. 
Healy,  Rev.  John 
Hargrove,  Rev.  Mr. 
Henderson,  Rev.  Josiah 
Hawkins,  John 
Hanson,  Mr. 
Haicrnut,  G. 
Hall,  Thomas 
Hanse,  Thomas 
Hue^hes,  David 
Haghm,  Henry 
Hunt,  Mary 
Hag.is,  James 
Hill,  -Aaron 
Hornblower,  Jos.  C. 
Halstead,  Caleb 
Headen,   Aaron 
Hayes,  Moses 
Harrison,  Isaac 
Hughes,  Issachar 
Harrison,  Josiah, 
Humphrey,  Gideon 
Hew.>.  Samuel 
Hall,  Robert 
Hart,  John  D. 
Headen,  James 


do. 

Wilming 

do. 

Newport 

Thornbo. 

Snow-hill. 

Baltimore. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do, 

do. 

Burlington. 

BiuiiSwick. 

•do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do, 

Newark. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Newark. 

Del.    Co. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Newark. 


Hiches,  Thomas 
HiUycr.Rev. 
Hearlen,  Electa 
Ha'her,  Hetty 
HoUiies,  W. 
Hendricks,  Walter 
Hughes,  Jos. 
Howel,  Jojin, 
Harrison,  George. 
Harrison,  Caleb 
Hall,  Eliphalet 
Hamilton,  W. 

I.J- 

Jones,  David 
Joyent,  Charles 
Jaquett,  Thomas 
Justice,  Jos. 
Jones,  Elvy, 
Jones,  George 
Jolinson,  John 
Jacobs  Joseph 
Jeffries,  James 
Inglis,  Rev.  James, 
Jones,  James  A. 
Jones,  James  D. 
Irving,  Edw. 
Jeffries,  Benjamin 
Johnson,  Henry 
Jollne,  William. 
Johnson,  Dr.  Uzal, 
Jones,  David 
Johnson,  James 
Johnson,  Nathaniel 
Jeffers,  Isaac 
Johnson,  David  G. 
James,  Mary, 
James,  Frederick. 
Jones,  Nicholas. 
Johnson,  Theodocius 
Jones,  James 
Jiines,  G    T. 
Jaques,  David 
Joyce,  Rev.  John 

K 

Keyser,  Peter 
Kane,  Francis 
Keyser,  Samuel 
Keyser  Jacob 
Keyser,  Thomas 
Kitchen,  Thomas 
Kaiglm,  Abraham, 
Kernes,  Levi, 
Knox,  Rev.  Saml.  A.M. 
Keider,  W.  jun. 
Kenfield,  S.uah, 


Newark. 

dp. 

do. 

Orange,  J. 

Newark. 

do. 

BellviUe,J. 

Bloomfield,  J. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 


Pliilad. 
do. 
do. 
do- 
do, 
do. 
do. 
Gerraantown, 
Wilmington. 
Baltimore, 
dj      . 
do. 
Burlington, 
do. 
Brunswick, 
do. 
Newark, 
do. 
do. 
do. 
do. 
do. 
Del.  Go. 
do. 
Newark, 
do 
do. 
Bloomfield. 
do. 
Philad. 


Philad. 

do. 

Germantown. 

do. 

do. 

Bucks  Co. 

Chri.stiana.. 

Sta'.mton,  Vir. 

Baltimore. 

Bnmswick. 

N''war)l. 


SUBSCRIBERS'  NAMES. 


Kumey,  Hannah 
Kenfield,  Thomas 
King,  Stephen, 
Keen,  Thomas 


tumn,  John 
Lyon,  Rev.  Richard 
Lenor,  Jacob, 
Loyness,  Levi 
Locke,  Nathan 
Lacy,  R.  W,  B. 
Lasley,  Rev.  T . 
Lippord,  Daniel  B- 
Lackins,  Edward, 
Leveren,  Charles 
Latta,  Rev.  John  E. 
Lettig-,  George, 
Lot.  Uriah, 
Law,  Wilham 
Little,  Stephens. 
Looker,  Nathaniel 
Lamplugh,  Daniel 
Levis,  Cyrus 
Lindsay,  James 
-Levis,  John, 
Lee,  John, 
Laycraft,  Richard 
Leish,  William 

M 

Markoe,  Francis 
Mintonoye,  David  B. 
Mullen,  Thomas 
Mollersan,  W, 
M'Leighan,  D. 
Morrow,  Samuel 
Miller,  George  I. 
M'Cochle,  James 
Moyer,  W. 
M<Clune,  John 
Matson,  Aaron 
M 'Arthur,  James 
M'llhenny,  James 
Mason,  B. 
Mete,  George 
M 'Clung,  W. 
Moore,  Mordecai 
Mott,  Laurence 
M'Kimsey,  Mor. 
M'Menn,  Joseph 
M'Mahan,  Cuss. 
Murdoch,  I.  G. 
M'Machen,  Charles 
Madock,  J.  G. 
Massington,  Jacob 
M'Laughlin,  Rev.  J. 


Newark. 

do. 

do. 

Bloomfield. 


Bloomfield,  N.  J. 


do, 

Philad. 

do. 

do. 

6  Copies . 

do. 

Germantown. 

Milford. 

Del.  County. 

Christiana. 

Baltimore. 

Brunswick. 

do. 

do. 

Newark 

Del.  County. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Orange,  N.  J. 

Newark. 

Bellville,  J. 


Philad. 

N.J. 

Philad. 

do. 

Bush-Hill. 

Philad. 

Germantown 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Del.  CO. 

Philad. 

do. 

do. 

Wilmington. 

do. 

do 

Newport,  Del. 

Newcastle. 

Del.  CO. 

Baltimore. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Burlington. 


Mundy,  Fred. 
Moser,  James 
Machay,  E.  G. 
Marvell,  John  W . 
Muckle,  Richard 
M'Gogg,  Daniel 
Mathew,  David 
Munn,  Moses 
Marcell,  Jacob 
Marehouse,  Silas 
Morney,  John 
M'Gill,  Adley 
Miller,  Jona. 
Mansu,  John 


N 


Naglee,  James 
Newman,  Daniel 
Nutz,  Leon.  J. 
Nutt,  W. 
Naglee,  James 
Neilson,  John 
Nathy,  Jacob 
North,  Silas 
Nevinus,  John  W. 
Nichols,  Aaron 
Nichols,  David 
Nape,  Joseph 
Nichols  Johnson] 


Brunswick. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Del,  CO, 

do. 

Newark. 

Belville. 


Philad. 

do. 

Germantown. 

Newport  Del, 

Burlington, 

Brunswick. 

do. 

do, 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do, 

do. 


O 


Orange,  J. 
Osburn,  Jeremiah 
Ohver,  David 
Outcalt,  Henry  B . 
Oram,  John 
Oghvie,  Ann 
Ogden,  James  C. 
Ogden,  Joseph 
Ovvings,  Robert  T 
Osburn,  Henry 


Bloomfield,  N.  J. 

Philad. 

Brunswick. 

do. 

do. 

Newark. 

do, 

Del,  CO. 

Bloomfield. 

do. 


Pitt,  Samuel 
Potts,  Rev,  George  C. 
Patterson,  Robert 
Payne,  W. 
Prentice,  E. 
Peacock, E. 
Probassco,  Henry  Esq. 
Parmer,  Clement 
Provest,  Abraham 
Palmer,  Henry 
Poulson,  Samuel 
Porter,  Mary 
Penn,  Jacob  M. 


Bloomfield  N.  J. 

Philad. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Germantown. 

Wilmington. 

Newpoi't. 

Staunton  Va, 

Baltimore. 


SUBSCRIBERS'  NAMES. 


Porter,  Samuel 

PhilacL 

Stratton,  William 

Phiiad. 

Peters,  Samuel 

Trenton. 

Stock,  Jolm 

do. 

Poole,  Michael 

Brunswick. 

Shutts,  Charles  Jun. 

do. 

Perin,  Peter 

do. 

Shaiie,  Artliur 

do. 

Piiilipps,  Dr,  John 

do. 

Saunders,  Sarah 

do. 

Packhurst.  John 

Newark. 

Snyder,  William 

do. 

Pearson,  Catherine 

do. 

Swartz,  Gef)rge 

Germantown. 

Pickins,  Samuel 

do. 

Street,  John 

do. 

Packhurst,  Hem-y  L. 

do. 

Sheets,  Robert 

do. 

Pyle,  Israel 

Del.  CO. 

Smith  Henry 

do. 

Piper,  Joseph 

do. 

Smith,  Yost 

do. 

Peanon,  Eliza 

Newark. 

Swartz,  Daniel 

Germantown. 

Poener.  Isaac 

do. 

Sweyer,  Henry 

do. 

Pearson,  Thomas 

Bloomfield. 

Stephenson  W. 

do. 

Sterling,  J.   W. 

Mount  Holly. 

Q. 

Stewart,  Robert 

Wilmington . 

Qixicksall,  John 

Burlington. 

Sneath,  Rev.  Richarc 

^do. 

Stewart,  Perry 

do. 

R 

Stevenson,  Isaac 

do. 

Smith,  John 

do. 

Range,  Mary,           Bloomfield,  N.   J. 

Standerst,  Susan 

Newport . 

Riker,  David  H. 

do. 

Spencer,  Price 

Christiana. 

Roifcrs,  Rev.  Dr.  W. 

Philad. 

Smith,  R.  S. 

do. 

Rup,  Christopher 

do. 

Shields,  Susan 

do. 

Rock,  Sarah 

do. 

Savage,  Dr.  W.         Snow-hill  Mar. 

Renshaw,  F. 

do. 

Stoop,  Ephraim, 

Newport. 

Reed,  Elizabeth  Ann 

do. 

Summerville,  Samuel 

Baltimore . 

Rorces,  John 

do. 

Stiles,  James, 

Burlington . 

Rapp,  Joseph 

Germantown . 

Slake,  Philip, 

Brunswick 

Royal,  George 

do. 

Silcock,  Joseph 

do. 

Rose,  John 

de. 

Shirdlow,  WiUiam 

do. 

Rodman  John 

Del.  CO. 

Scott,  J.  W. 

do. 

Read,  Rev.  Thomas 

Wilmington. 

Smith,  Ja.^per 

do. 

Redman,  Joseph 

Bucks  CO. 

Sturges,  Thomas  T. 

Springfield,  J . 

Ross,  James, 

Christiana . 

Sandford,  John  P. 

Newark. 

Rogers,  Mary 

do. 

Sharp,  Rev.  Daniel 

do. 

Rice,  Jesse 

Baltimore. 

Stuart,  W.   Y. 

do. 

Richards.  Rev.  Lewis 

do. 

Sandford,  J.   P. 

do. 

Randolph,  Moses 

Burlington. 

Searings,  J. 

do. 

Roland,  William 

Brunswick. 

Salter,'  Jos .  H . 

do. 

Rosegrant,  Alexander 

do. 

Sayrs,  Isaac 

do. 

Richards,  James 

Newark. 

Spencer,  Josiah 

do. 

Ryerson,  Cornelius  J. 

do. 

Salten,  Amos 

do. 

Roberts,  Moses 

do. 

Sharpless,  Daniel 

do. 

Reader,  John 

BellviUe. 

Stircer,  Samuel 

do. 

Riker,  Michael 

do. 

Springer,  Jos. 

do. 

Stuart,  Jo. 

Orange,  N.J. 

S 

Steel,  Enos 

do. 

Smith,  Abraham, 

Bloomfield. 

Stewart,  WiUiam 

Philad. 

Swan,  Caleb 

do. 

Smith,  John 

Bloomfield . 

Stout  Jonathan  B. 

do. 

T 

Smith,  Mathias 

do. 

Strieker  Daniel 

do. 

Tompkins,  Daniel 

Philad. 

Suughton,  Rev.  Dr. 

W.         Philad. 

Thumbut,  George 

do. 

Sergeant,  Rev.  Thom 

as                   do. 

Thomas  Robert 

Germantown. 

Sailor,  Henry 

do. 

Trites,  Barbara 

do. 

Stockton,  John 

do. 

Thomas,  Owen 
I  Twyford,  W.  T. 

do. 

Smith,  Thomas 

do. 

Germantown 

SUBSCRIBERS'  NAMES. 


Taylor,  John 
Tripp,  Samuel 
Thompson,  John 
Thompson,  Daniel 
Thomas,  Lambert 
Tennison,  William 


Wilming. 

do. 

Springfield. 

Del.  CO. 

Baltinnore. 

Brunswick. 


Tennison,  Cornelius  do. 
Thompson,  Philetlus  M.        Newark. 

Taylor,  Thomas  do. 

Tillon,  William  do. 
Thatcher,  Enos  &  Thomas      Del.  co. 

Tyson,  James  do. 

Thompson,  Sarah  D.  do. 

Taylor,  John  do. 

Taylor,  Thomas  Newark. 

Tichenor,  James  do. 

Tichenor,  Isaac  C.  Orange  J. 
Thomas,  Cor.                       Bloomfield. 

Tucker,  Benjamin  do. 

Turner,  Francis  Philad. 


V 

Veasy,  Edward 
Vanderbitt,  Jeramus, 
Vorhees,  Jacob 
Upshur,  Nancy 
Vorhees,  John 
Van  Houten,  James 
Vincent,  Rachel 
Vanderslice,  George 

W 


Baltimore. 

Brunswick. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Newark. 

N.   Y. 

PhiUd. 


Waikin,  Samuel  Philad 

Wright,  Joseph  do. 

Woodward,  W.  W.  50  Copies  do. 
Ward,  Samuel  Bloomfield,  N.  J. 
Wilson,  Rev.  Dr.  James  P.    Philad. 

Wilson,  Samuel  do. 

Wallace,  John  Maryland. 

Williams,  Samuel  Philad. 

Walter,  P.  B.  do. 

Wallace,  Aie.xander  do 

Williams,  Benjamin  do. 

Willihandan,  Mary  do. 

Wiser,  John  do. 

Whi taker,  Robert  do. 

Williams,  Edmund  do. 

Warner,  Sarah  Germantown. 

Wells,  Robert,  Jun,  do. 


Wunder,  J.  S.  Germantown. 

Williamson,  John  do. 

Wander,  George  Del.  cb. 

Wylie,  Rev.  Samuel  B.  do. 
Witsell  John                     Wilmington. 

Webster,  John  do. 

Wilson,  Ann  do. 

Wells  Enos  Newport . 

Weaver,  Samuel  Del.  co. 

Wright,  W.  Christiana. 

Welch,  Sylvester  do. 
Whittington,  W.  Esq.  Snow-hill,  Md. 

Williams,  Mary  Burlington. 

Whittlesey,  Samuel  do. 

Wilier,  Moses  Brunswick. 

Webster,  Lewis  do. 

Woodward,  W.  do. 

Wycoff,  Peter  S.  do. 

Whitelock,  John  do. 

Williams,  Rev.  Gershom  Spring.  J. 

Wade,  Oliver  Newark. 

Whelpay,  Rev.  Samuel  do. 

Wolley,  Abraham  R.  do. 

Wadei  Oliver  do. 

Williams,  James  do. 

Wade,  Charles  do. 

WiUard,  Rev.  J.  do. 

Wallace  George              '  do. 

Ward,  Amos  do. 

VVard,  John  do. 
Watson,  J.  F.  50  Copies,        Philad - 

Williamson,  Jesse  Del.  co 

Wright,  John  Newark. 

Wheeler,  Caleb  '         do, 

I  Williamson,  Alexander  Bloomfield. 

Woodrufl',  Abigial  do. 

Ward,  David  do. 

Wright,  Nathaniel  Chester  co. 


Yearly,  Alexander  Baltimore, 

Young,  James  Germantown. 

Young,  W.  Springfield,  N.  J. 

Yeudenu,  John  Newark. 

Youngs,  Abijah  do. 


ZornJemeon,  Abr. 
Zoralemeon,  J.I. 


Bloomfield  N.  J^ 
Belville- 


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